Journey of a Lilmothiit
by Jhonie
Summary: During his training trip, Naruto stumbles upon the ancient remnants of a once-proud people. One thing leads to another, and within only a few hours, Jiraya is left alone, the Kyuubi has a mental breakdown and Naruto finds finds himself stuck in a very cold land, in a body he is pretty sure is not the one he had last night and a bunch of dragons who seems to want him dead...
1. Trails of a forgotten past

**And so, this one welcomes you to another fic by J, otherwise known as Jhonie, also known as ME. I know I really should be working on my other projects instead of this one, but for once I actually know where I'm going with this one. But, you didn't exactly click on this story because you wanted to hear little old me rant, huh? So, just sit back and enjoy the fruits of a spark of inspiration and many, _many_ hours of research...**

**Haters are welcome!**

**Lesson of the day: don't pick your nose with the same finger you poked dried chili with only a minute earlier. It is an exceptionally bad idea.**

* * *

**Journey of a Lilmothiit**  
**Chapter 1  
**_**Trails of a forgotten past**_

* * *

Pain.

In his dazed state of mind, it was all he could register. Pain. His head hurt, his feet hurt, his skin hurt, his arse hurt and his knees hurt. In fact, he was pretty damn sure that even his _hair_ hurt, however that was conceivable.

In a small part of his brain that was not hopelessly preoccupied with the obnoxious amounts of sheer _agony _that his body was signalling it quite frenetically, Naruto briefly wondered if anyone got the number of that mountain that mauled him, because that sure as hell was what he felt like. Hell, he was hurting in places that he had not been previously aware he even had in the first place.

In hindsight, opening that scroll probably had not been the brightest idea he ever had, but who could blame him? He had been curious, dammit!

Now, if we are to better comprehend our blonde friend's great predicament, we need to go back in time a little bit. To be exact, go back to a few hours earlier that same day, when he and Jiraya had been travelling down the road between one town and the next, except they were not really travelling by the _road_, per se, but rather through dense forest, mostly to avoid pursuers (who were mostly female, of course, knowing Jiraya). They had just eaten their lunch and Naruto was reading some sealing scrolls while the sage was, as per normal, scribbling away in one of his notebooks. However, there was just something in the air that prevented him from being able to focus properly, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He glanced towards his student, only to find him being uncharacteristically quiet, only semi-focused on the scroll he was studying.

Oh.

That explained it. They had been travelling for a bit over a year now and Jiraya had gotten used to the kid and his antics. Never quite settling down, never entirely quiet. As of recently, he had mellowed down quite a bit, but never completely. That spark, that liveliness was never lessening. The difference was perhaps that these days he had something to focus all that energy on. That something was Fuuinjutsu.

He hadn't really intended to get the kid started on the rather obscure art so early, but a deal was a deal. About two months into their training trip a certain incident occurred, which all parties involved agreed upon to never ever mention to anyone ever again, although Jiraya had to promise to teach the art to the kid to make him agree to keep quiet about it. Damn brat and his accursed penchant for blackmailing...

Now if he was going to be honest with himself, Jiraya didn't really have any high expectations as they started out. As he said, Fuuinjutsu wasn't exactly the most conventional art, but somehow, the brat had taken to it like a fish in the water. Gotta be the blood, he reasoned. He supposed you didn't have a mother who hailed from a clan infamous throughout the nations for their downright fearsome sealing prowess and a father who was hailed as the greatest damn sealing master of all known time without having at least some affinity for it. And while it was true that the kid had yet to go very far beyond the basics, at least as far as execution went, it was a fact that they had begun the training not even eleven months ago. Minding the fact that the brat by nature wasn't a theoretical learner and that he still hadn't figured out the secret to the Kage Bunshin yet, his progress was beyond impressive. In fact, he had gone further in the art than most ninja these days had at Jounin. It truly was an underappreciated art.

Now, the point Jiraya was trying to get to was that while the kid had gained something to occupy his mind with, the moments when he was entirely quiet were still exceedingly rare. Always coming with a new question about this and that and it was a trait the sage encouraged. Being inquisitive was a good thing, especially so when learning. However, today was different. Today, Naruto was quiet. Hell, he didn't even seem focused, something that was unusual for him. However, these moments did happen occasionally, and when they did, it was always the same thing bothering him: Sasuke. Jiraya sighed. He knew very well that the kid viewed the Uchiha as the brother he never had. It had been the same damn story with him and Orochimaru. The sage tucked away his notebook and sat down beside the kid. Keeping that kind of musing to oneself was never a good thing.

"Oi, kid. You're brooding."

"Hm?" Naruto's head snapped up, his eyes not showing any of the usual signs of depression whenever his mind turned to the subject of Konoha's most recent traitor. "Ah, no, I just saw something funny today, 's all."

Well, what do you know? Seems his suspicions were wrong for once. "Funny enough to distract you from your seals, you say? What the hell would that be? Found yourself a pretty girl?"

That earned him a fist in the gut. "Baka-sennin. How would I find a girl in the woods? Besides, I love Sakura. You know that!"

Jiraya mentally rolled his eyes. Seriously, their whole team dynamic reminded him _way _too much of his own old team for his liking. "I know, kid; I'm just teasing you. But seriously, what's it you saw?"

Naruto shrugged. "Just a ruin, a bit south of here. Seemed a bit familiar, that's all."

A ruin? Here? That was new. While this area wasn't exactly the most frequented, Jiraya was a man who prided himself in his work, and this was a hole in his information. Now, the old sage was by no means a historian, or even a scholar, but it was a fact that he was the resident spymaster of Konoha, and as such, he made it his business to be in the know-how of just about everything he could get his hands on. This was a hole in his mental map that he had to fill in. How old were the ruins? Who had built them? What kind of ruins were they? He needed leads.

"Were there any inscriptions on them? Strange patterns? Pictures?"

Naruto scratched his head. "Well, I didn't really go in there, but..."

"But?"

"I... Well, I saw something. By the entrance. A crest, I think. Can't shake the feeling I've seen it somewhere..." The last part was mumbled mostly to himself, but Jiraya caught it nevertheless.

"What did it look like?"

The blond shrugged. Apart from the odd feeling he got from the ruins, he didn't really see what the big deal was, but if Ero-sennin was interested, then who was he to object? "It was kinda faded, so I couldn't make much out of it, but it kinda looked like a dragon. And something else. A sun, I think. It kinda looked like those... what were they called again? Those old-ass cave-paintings?"

"Petroglyphs?"

"Yeah. Those."

Not exactly a crest many would recognise, no. A crest that exceedingly few would even know of.

As it happened, Jiraya was one of those precious few. How could he not? What his current student had just crudely described was eerily similar to a certain old amulet that his previous apprentice had always worn since before he even first met him.

Namikaze Minato had been an orphan, just like his son now was, left with naught but his name and that amulet of his. The amulet had been lost during the Kyuubi attack fourteen years ago, but Jiraya had still been searching for clues about that crest for what now was nearly three decades during his free time, but nothing had ever turned up. He had almost given up the search after Minato's death, but had pressed on in the end, both as a kind of last favour for his old student, and for the sake of Naruto. And now, that very boy just stumbled upon a lead. The first clue he had ever found.

* * *

The ruins were in better shape than Jiraya had imagined. A dome, mostly underground and overgrown by countless plants, but it was still standing proud, with the still relatively fresh-looking stone shining through at some places. Occasionally, a small patch of engravings could be seen, taking the shape of flowing, almost arcane-looking, symmetrical knot-patterns that somehow reminded the sage of the sea.

Time had camouflaged the ruin to look like a grassy hill, hidden unless you squinted. A small, gossamer yet gnarly tree grew just beside the entrance, barely two meters tall, with light grey bark and silvery pines. It seemed to be some variant of Juniper, but nothing like any he had ever seen. Quirking an eyebrow at the odd piece of flora he turned his attention back to the door.

Indeed, he knew that crest. Faded by time, hidden by some crawling, mossy plant he didn't know the name of, but so undoubtedly the same as the one he knew so well. The Dragon and the Sun. The Wind and the Waves. The insignia that was synonymous to the name Namikaze, at least to the few who knew it.

Whatever this ruin was, it had been built by Minato's ancestors. By Naruto's ancestors.

"So... we're going in there?" The kid's tone lacked his usual boundless energy. He had told him that he got a strange sort of feeling from the ruins, but Jiraya chalked it up to some sort of genetic memory. Unless the fox knew of the place and its feelings leaked through the seal of course, which should by all means be impossible, so the bastard furball was unlikely the cause.

The sage nodded to his student and took a second to study the gate itself. It was made of metal, but what kind, he couldn't tell. A rather heavy lock decorated the middle, seamlessly weaved into the crest. The whole mass of the rather small gate was what formed the simple yet elegant insignia. He could sense no chakra coming from the door, but as he reached to open the gate, his fingers was stopped a few centimetres from the surface by what seemed to be a barrier of sorts. What was strange was that he couldn't sense it. He knew it was there. Hell, it was _visible_, and he could clearly touch it, but his chakra senses gave him nothing. No source, nor any flow. Fascinating... How could it be active after so long, anyway? And wherefrom did it draw its power?

His student didn't seem to notice this and quite simply attempted to open it himself, not stopping for a moment to contemplate why his sensei was seemingly denied access to the ruins.

Needless to say, his touch called forth a vastly different reaction from the metal gates.

The crest faintly lit up, and the circular door just... rolled aside. Quite understandably, Naruto was confused. "Was that supposed to happen?"

Jiraya just shrugged. "Probably. Let's just go in."

And so they did.

The sight that greeted the two shinobi as they walked inside the dome was that of stairs. A corridor of stairs, going downwards, cut in that same simple, yet elegant style that the people who once built this seemed to favour. It was soothing, in an odd sort of way, giving the stone a somewhat... homey feel.

At least, that was how the stone walls felt to the younger of the two.

Jiraya, on the other hand, was feeling edgy, and not just out of habit, either. Anything could rest within these halls, and if the little episode at the gate had been any hint, he wasn't welcome here, and the fact that he couldn't sense that barrier properly didn't exactly calm him down. However, he had made a promise. He would find out what he could if it so killed him, so long it didn't kill Naruto as well.

Pictures were engraved within the corridor walls, each unique, as if telling a story. He could look at them later. His student was almost hurrying down the stairs now and he'd be damned if he left him to his own.

Naruto felt a tug. Not a physical tug, mind, it was more of a... a calling. It had been present ever since he first saw the hill earlier. Hell, if he had not felt the tug, he probably wouldn't have found the ruins in the first place. It had been faint then, like a passing whiff of freshly baked bread, distinct and alluring. It was faint enough to ignore, but still strong enough to attract attention.

The moment he had entered these stony halls, that tug had only grown exponentially. Hell, at this point, he could almost _hear_ it.

No, wait! He _could_ hear something. Faint, but distinct. "Sensei, do you hear that?"

Jiraya tensed. "Hear what?"

"_That,_" the blond tried, striding onwards. "That... chanting."

The sage frowned, his eyes narrowing. He did not like this. "I don't hear anything."

"It's kind of like battlecries," Naruto told him. "Like some people are trying to sing some sort of awesome battle-song, but it never really kicks off."

It all set off one too many alarms for Jiraya's liking, but he knew they couldn't go back now. This was very possibly their only chance to find anything about Naruto's ancestors.

Not that the kid knew that, though. He probably should tell the kid...

Soon, the cave opened up a rather great lot. Light leaked in from an opening in the cave roof, lighting the place up rather effectively for its incredibly small size. Clever design, Jiraya admitted. They knew what they were doing, the ancestral Namikaze.

A relatively large spring sprung forth from one of the cave walls, granting moisture to the plethora of unfamiliar flora that grew down there. Three more of those Juniper trees that stood by the entrance outlined the spring, leaning over it like protective guardians. By their roots grew a few plants with dark, spiky leaves, large, bell-like flowers in a purple-blue shade sticking out here and there. Right by the edge of the water there grew a rather interesting brand of plant. Almost identical to the dandelion in the shape of its leaves, it had a bright blue colouring and to Jiraya's great surprise, they not only emitted a distinct glow, but also a peculiar chime. Could that have been what the kid had heard earlier? Nah, it hardly sounded anything like the chanting he had described. The chime was constant, monotonous, shifting only in its intensity, like a pulse. Like a slow, chiming heartbeat. Nothing like battlecries.

Nevertheless, while the spring surely was quite beautiful, there were other things in the cave that were far more interesting than that, unless you were a botanist, which neither of them was. One of these things was what seemed to be a monument in the very middle of the room, the light from the hole illuminating the thing quite like a spotlight would. It was a sort of wall, carved out of solid rock, curved inwards like a crescent. Naruto decided to take a closer look at it.

Jiraya on the other hand found the cave walls far more interesting. Carved out of the solid stone of the cave there were shelves, filled to the brim. With scrolls. Scrolls meant stories. Information.

History.

Smiling to himself, the sage opened one of the scrolls with great anticipation, only to be disappointed at what he saw. It was written in runes. Not the runes that Yuki had used in ancient times, either, no. Those he could read. But these... these were different from anything he had ever seen. The runes reminded him of cuneiform script, but with a lot fewer lines. Each of the symbols never had more than three lines and one dot each, and not even that, most of the time. It looked simple in its design, but Jiraya had never seen anything like it.

This naturally meant he couldn't read them.

Bloody brilliant...

"Oi, Ero-sennin!" Naruto then called out.

"Yeah?" Jiraya answered absent-mindedly as he carefully rolling up the old, withering scroll, deciding to check a different one, only to find that it, too, was written in the strange runes.

"What is an Elder Scroll?" was his student's rather unexpected reply.

The sage paused. "What's a _what_ now?"

"An _Elder Scroll. _It's mentioned here, but I don't know what it is."

Jiraya frowned and walked over to where his student stood by the monument, which was inscribed with the very same runes as the ones on the scrolls. "You can read that?"

Naruto seemed quite bewildered. "You can't?"

The sage shook his head. "I've never seen anything like it. What's it saying?"

The boy's entire mannerism exuded pure confusion, but he went along with it, since there wasn't really much he could do except to comply. Perhaps it would shed some light upon the situation. "Well, it goes like this: Mu kos Staadnau. Drun nol strun okaaze. Drun naal faal Kel. Mu kos faal kiire se ven ahrk shul. Hon praan tey."

The blond scratched his head, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he had just spoken an entirely different language. It was a deep and guttural tongue with rolling R's and a strong accentuation on the vowels. It sounded inhuman.

And the kid didn't even seem to be aware that he was doing it.

No, he just stood there in front of the curved wall with crossed arms as if nothing weird was going on, glaring slightly at the text as if expecting answers. "But I still don't get what the hell an Elder Scroll is. The word's a damn mess!"

Jiraya barely listened to what his apprentice said. This... Was it the fox's influence? But how? And why? It should not be by any means possible... The seal's design would not allow it.  
Now that he thought about it, the eldritch language brought a fact to light, which he had previously overlooked.

It was faint, barely noticeable, but it was a fact that Naruto had always spoken with a slight accent. Faintly rolling R's, stronger accentuation on A's, U's and O's. It was faint, barely noticeable until one sat down and thought about it for a while, but it was still there. He had never known where it came from, nor had he given it any thought until now.

On second thought, hadn't Minato had that accent as well? Well, at least that ruled out the fox. But were accents inheritable like that? Genetics worked in strange ways at times...

The toad sage shook his head. "You do realise you just spoke a different language, right?"

"_What?_ I did!?"

Jiraya facepalmed. _'__He didn__'__t even notice...__'_ "Yes, you did. Could you translate it?"

His apprentice hesitated for a second, before nodding. "I... I'll try." He seemed puzzled, almost apprehensive. Not a surprise, really, given what had just occurred, but he swallowed and turned back to the wall. "Some meanings are difficult to translate, but taken literally, it goes something like this: 'We are the Unbound, brought from storming seas. Brought by the Elder Scroll. We are the children of the Wind and the Sun. Here rests our tale.'"

"Bloody brilliant," the sage muttered. "It's all just lying here, and I can't read it... Damn it all!"

Naruto leaned his head to the side, frowning. "You _honestly_ can't read it?"

Jiraya shook his head. "Nope."

"That's weird..." The boy scratched his head. "But then, there was that light-thing."

"Light?"

"Ah, yeah...Two of the words kinda glowed a few minutes ago. 'Strun' and 'Shul'. They stopped glowing after a few seconds, though. The chanting stopped, too."

The sage crossed his arms. Well, that certainly did not put him at ease. "And?"

"And what?"

"And, did something happen?"

The blonde teen shrugged. "Not really. I get the feeling that those words are special in some way, but other than that... don't think so."

Well, this was just getting better and better... "Alright kid, go seal up those scrolls on the shelves. We'll look through them later. Just make sure to keep your guard up; I'm getting a bad feeling about this whole thing."

Naruto sighed, but complied, albeit grumbling. Just like ero-sennin, dumping all the work on him. But he had to admit it; he was interested in those scrolls too. Who were these people? And why was he the only one who could read that script? Hell, why _could_ he in the first place? He hadn't ever seen script like that before, either. He just knew it. It was as if the _words themselves_ told him what they meant, and it felt... _obvious_. It was as if he had always known it, which made no sense at all. It was as if whoever built these halls had left these scrolls, these messages, for him specifically.

The question was just, _why?_

Meanwhile, Jiraya was sending a messenger toad to Konoha to report their discovery. While he didn't believe that anyone who wasn't a Namikaze would be able to open the door, Tsunade would still want to know about this.

The old sage couldn't help but feel a shiver crawl up his spine as he gazed at the odd monument. Four lines of text, written in an incomprehensible tongue. A tongue his apprentice could somehow read.

How?

While it was true that the only person he had ever met, or even heard about for that matter, that came from the Namikaze family line was Minato, so he couldn't really be any sure, but if Naruto's aptitude for the subject was any hint, the affinity for seals ran pretty thick in the family. Could they have left a seal that imprinted the language into Naruto's mind?

Was that even possible?

Not that he knew, it wasn't, but you never knew. No rules or boundaries ever held to enough prodding, after all. But to answer these questions, he needed to find the power source. Taking a deep breath, the Sennin focused outwards, hoping to have better luck this time.

Faint. He had almost missed it, but yes. He did feel _something._ A few hundred meters below them there was a faint... _pulse. _What it was, he couldn't tell, but it was undoubtedly emitting energy. Not chakra. It was similar, but... he knew no words that could describe it.

Now, how to find the way down?

Naruto had just sealed the last of the scrolls when the sound of stone scraping against stone echoed throughout the cave, sending him into immediate alert. He pulled out a kunai, ready to defend himself at a moment's notice, only to relax as he saw his teacher standing over a hole that had opened up in front of the monument, stairway spiralling down into the depths.

"You done?" asked Jiraya, appearing calm as a cucumber, but only thanks to decades of experience.

Naruto nodded.

The sage nodded back. "Let's go, then."

* * *

It was getting difficult to keep track of time as the two shinobi descended down the spiralling stairway in what would have been total darkness, if not for the fact that the stairway basically was no more than a big hole in the ground with stone plates jutting out of the wall, forming a descending spiral, which allowed the light from above to reach even this far down. Naruto had tried to keep track of how far down they'd walked, but soon found it hopeless. It was simply too far. It was a damn good thing that the opening that let light trough was directly overhead; else they'd be walking in complete darkness. The stairs were quite steep, and if you fell, there would be nothing to stop that fall but the eventual stone floor. It was not a very comforting thought.

Eventually, the downwards tunnel widened, likening the inside of a vase, with a very, _very_ long throat, mind. The stone floor was inscribed with runes, of the same kind as the ones before, only this time they didn't make sense to the blond boy. Naal Sossedov mu fent daal? _Dragon_blood? Return to where?

Apart from the runes, the room was incredibly... stale. There was no bookcases, no plants, no furniture, not even cobwebs. Nothing. Just empty. Apart from one thing.

At the very centre of the room, standing above a slight elevation in the floor there was a smooth metal sphere, supported by nothing but air. Not floating, standing. It just so happened it wasn't standing _on_ anything. The sphere had a certain aura, an aura of _heavy_. It wasn't logical by any meaning of the word, but Naruto got the distinct feeling that if he was to try and push the oversized brass marble, it wouldn't budge a damn millimetre.

Despite being suspended in the air.

"What _is_ that?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Hell if I know," Jiraya said, frowning as he walked up to it. "It does seem important, though."

A logical conclusion, since not only was it a _flying brass orb,_ but it also had an entire room for itself. It was obviously important, if not the very purpose this structure was built for, but what it _was,_ well... The inscriptions were most likely a vital piece to the puzzle, but it was too vague to make anything out of it. And besides, Dragonblood? What was _up_ with that?

Naruto walked up to the sphere, as if it in itself would answer his questions, and couldn't help but feel a certain... call, if you could call it that. He reached out to it...

Only for him to immediately pull back as a sharp pain jolted through his hand. It wasn't that bad - he'd had far, _far_ worse - but it was entirely unexpected. It also left a bloodstain on the orb. What the?

"What happened?" Jiraya exclaimed.

Naruto licked the blood off his finger, just as puzzled as his sensei. "It cut me!"

"Cut you? The _orb?_" The sage threw a wary glance on the big lump of metal, only to turn wary as he saw the blood stain being _absorbed_ by the thing_._ That probably wasn't a good sign. "Get _down!__"_

A sound decision, as the sphere started hissing, exuding steam, spinning as if folding, yet unfolding itself _at the same time._ The hissing noise the sphere let out was _way_ too alike that of an exploding note about to go off for their liking.

Only, unlike what the two were expecting, there never was any explosion.

Daring a glance, Naruto turned his head, and saw something quite unlike anything he had ever seen before. The sphere, smooth without even the slightest indentation as it had been, had somehow split, over and over again, yet somehow _grown_. It twisted, _unfolding_ itself to reveal...

Oh. He _knew_ what that was. _That _was the Kel - the Elder Scroll - that the stone had spoken of.

The inscription in the elevation beneath the Kel, "Naal Sossedov mu fent daal", and "Drun naal fal Kel," from before... It all suddenly made sense. Whoever these people were, and wherever they had come from, Dragonblood, whatever it was, had been the key.

And the scroll was the Gate.

"Ero-sennin, I think I found something."

Jiraya snorted. "You don't say, brat. You think that scroll could be that Elder Scroll you were talking about?"

"I don't _think_ anything here, Ero-sennin. I _know_. That _is_ the Kel, no two ways about it."

The sage raised an eyebrow, suppressing a remark about that first part. Rare were the times where the kid acted all dead serious like that. He had no intention to ruin such a moment with lame verbal jabs. "How do you know?"

Naruto scratched his head, breaking the serious mask. "It's... a bit complicated."

"Try."

"It, uh..." the youngster tried to find the right words, but it was not something easily explained. "It's got with the Language in itself to do. It's... The words aren't really... uh... They're ideas. Yeah, that's it, ideas! It's all concepts and meanings, not words, see?"

Jiraya's facial expression told him quite clearly, that on the contrary, he did _not_ see what he meant.

Naruto frowned. He didn't really understand it himself entirely, so explaining it any well was difficult to say the least. Hell, he could barely explain it to _himself._ "Uh..." he begun, trying a different approach. "Take the word Strun..." Unnoticed by the blond, a small breeze picked up as he uttered this word. "It means storm, aye? But... It's not... Strun isn't the _word_ for storm; Strun is the _meaning_ of storm. It's what a storm _is._ The idea, the _essence_ of a storm... It's hard to explain, but I think the writer's understanding of a word is carried through the written words. Or something."

His sensei raised an eyebrow. He had seen many strange things in his days, yet this did seem to take the damn cake. "Then what makes this Elder Scroll so special? You didn't know what it was when you read it, did you?"

The boy shook his head. "No, I didn't. I, uh... I don't know; it was just different. I didn't get any proper reading of the word. Almost like..."

"Almost like the ones who wrote it didn't really know what it was, right?"

"Yeah... Something like that. It was fuzzy, like... It felt a bit like trying to divide by zero, you know? I know that _that_ is a Kel, but I have no idea what a Kel _actually_ _is._"

"Well then, why don't we find out?" He picked up the overly large and admittedly quite impressive scroll, hoping to be able to get a reading of it, since it was obviously different than the other ones. Hopefully, it would be written in some comprehensible language.

What he saw when he opened it was to put it simply, mind-boggling. There was no text, no pictures, it wasn't even much longer than perhaps a feet. But what space there was, was absolutely _filled to the brim_ with what seemed to be some kind of seal, but the matrix was much too complicated to comprehend, even for the seasoned Fuuinjutsu master that he was. Peculiar. All he could get out of the expansive array was that at heart, the seal was most likely of time-space manipulation nature, but what it did, he had no way to tell; the symbols were too alien to him.

He handed it over to his apprentice. "You get anything from this?"

"I think it's some kind of gate," Naruto replied as he received the rather massive scroll without even looking at its contents. "The runes on the wall said they were brought by it from 'storming seas', so I guess they used it to travel here from somewhere."

Jiraya nodded. "That makes sense. Did you find anything else?"

"Aye." The blond nodded towards the runes on the floor. "That one line written there: 'By Dragonblood we shall return.' Hell if I know what it means, though..."

The sage's eyes widened, now realizing what it meant. "Naruto! NO!"

But alas, it was too late; Naruto had already opened the scroll.

The array lit up.

Naruto felt a _tug..._

And then, Pain.

* * *

Elsewhere, yet so very close, in a relatively small pocket dimension, a large, nine-tailed fox seemed to be determined to re-paint the walls using only his head. No, wait. My bad. He was having a mental breakdown.

It was a peculiar sight, really, had anyone been there to see it; the great demon fox, the Kyuubi, hailed as the greatest and most cruel of all the demons, bashing his head against a cavern wall, repeatedly calling himself stupid. The wall was getting increasingly redder. From blood.

He'd screwed up badly, and he hadn't even realised it. For _fourteen years..._ He groaned, and put extra effort into his next bash. It was nearly hard enough to knock him unconscious. How? _How_ could he have missed that? _HOW?!_

Of _course_ that bastard had survived; he always did. Why, why, _why_ hadn't he had more faith in those idiots? _Why?!_

He had almost killed off the last remnants of that damn tribe... He had even _caused the death of at least one of them!_ That was simply _unforgivable!_

The borderline suicidal fox curled up inside his cage, blood flowing steadily from his head. He didn't care.

"I'm so sorry... Captain..."

* * *

**I really like italics...**

**Yes, Naruto cut himself on a smooth sphere. Logic? What sorcery do thy speak of?**

**This chapter is un-beta-fied. Beta requested! **


	2. On stranger shores

**Loyal followers! Thine wait is now over! Here I am, most certainly alive, contrary to what some apparently believe, with chapter two of JoaL. It should be noted that I was planning to release new chapters for this fic on a monthly basis since the beginning. School and shit, you know. Gotta keep knacking code. Woop, programming!**

**I should warn you that I may just sucker punch a few of your expectations straight in the nuts with this chapter, but as I said, the title's what it is for a reason. It's not _quite_ up to the standards I'd like it to be, but things don't really start kicking off until the next chapter, so I had more trouble getting this flowing properly than I'd have liked.**

**In any case…**

**Fuck the disclaimer, it's redundant anyway!**

* * *

Journey of a Lilmothiit

Chapter 2  
On stranger shores

* * *

Jiraya was close to panic. Scratch that, he _was_ panicking. This was _bad_. No ifs or buts about it, his student was _gone. _Minato's only son was _gone!_ He should have known, should have been more careful, should have trusted his nerves and avoided that scroll, but he _hadn__'__t,_ and now, Naruto. Was. _Gone._ Gone, in a flash of light, gone. Because of that scroll, gone. Because he had been careless. _Gone!_

And the scroll was just lying there on the floor, looking harmless. Innocent. Hah!

It still did nothing when he tried to read it...

No. He did not have time to waste on a breakdown. Nobody said the kid had kicked the bucket. He was probably still around somewhere. That brat was too damn stubborn to bite the dust like that.

Yeah. This was not the time to panic. He had to look at the situation calmly to figure out where that kid had gone.

He'd have to ask the toads. They would know. If they didn't know where that idiot apprentice of his had disappeared to, no one would.

* * *

Naruto woke up slowly. He couldn't move, barely even open his eyes and was sore all over. What happened to him? He couldn't remember. Everything was too hazy.

When he eventually managed to open his eyes, all he could see was a wooden ceiling. He was indoors. So, that meant someone had found him, then. Hopefully, that was a good thing.

He was lying on something furry. A pelt? Or many pelts, perhaps? Some kind of bed?

It took him several seconds and a troublesome amount of pain, but he managed to turn his head enough to see at least a bit more of the room. Hay met his eyes, and a lot of it at that. It seemed he was in some sort of barn, or storage, since the walls were lined with tools. Very old-fashioned tools, mind. What seemed to be some sort of ingots lay stacked here and there on the floor in impressive quantities.

The lighting was dim, but he could see quite clearly, despite the fact that he could not spot any light source. The room was odd, in more ways than one.

Everything about the room seemed to be taken straight out of a different era, and the complete lack of electronic devices, even the simplest ones like lamps, did not make things better. In fact, he couldn't spot any light source at all, except from the stars in the night sky, peeking through a small window.

If only he could remember what happened...

He felt weird, too. Not the painful or uncomfortable sort of weird, even if he did hurt a lot too. Something just felt... different. But he couldn't put his finger on it. Naruto tried to sit up, only to find out that he couldn't, at least not without sharp pain shooting through his whole body.

Well, that had been a bad idea. Perhaps it would be better to try moving gradually. He could move his neck, even if it was difficult, so he tried moving his hand next.

Wait. That wasn't his hand. Unless his hand had somehow grown thick fur and claws while he had been unconscious that was most certainly not _his_ hand.

The seed of disbelief and panic grew rapidly when he tried to curl his index finger, and the index finger of _that_ hand curled as commanded.

No. This was not happening. This was not even _possible._

He balled his hand to a fist.

The furry hand obeyed.

Fuck.

He would have screamed. He really would have. He would have screamed loud enough to wake up half the town, had he been able to. Instead, all he got was a vicious coughing fit, violent enough to force him to sit up, despite the pain the action caused. This allowed him to, for good or bad, see the rest of his body.

Yep, both of his hands were like that. And his arms, covered in thick, golden fur as well. His torso was mostly covered in bandages, but he could indeed see tufts of hair sticking out in between the strips. And if he wasn't mistaken... yep, there it was. A tail. He had grown a damn _tail!_ This couldn't be happening. This just _wasn__'__t_ happening!

No. He had to calm down. Panicking was only counterproductive and would lead him nowhere. He buried his face in his hands, wanting to take a deep breath to calm down, but it proved to be futile as his hands met with his face sooner than they should have.

A snout. He had grown a damn _snout_. Wait, were those... yep. Ears. Long, triangular, parabolic, _not human_ ears.

And just like that, all attempts at not panicking were thrown to the wind.

"_Kyuubi!__"_

There was a tired groan from his mind. **"****You****'****re noisy, brat. I****'****m trying to sleep, damn it!****"**

Naruto was however most certainly not in the mood for the fox's antics at that moment. _"__What have you _done_ to me?!__"_

The great fox snorted. **"****Idiot. Check the seal before throwing accusations about, will you?****"**

The blond practically tore off the bandages around his stomach in his rush to check the seal, channelling chakra as he did so. Luckily for him, it was still very much visible despite the fur, as the pattern had transferred to his... coat.

While he still had a long, _looong_ way to go before he could even consider attempting to actually perform an array as complex as the one that kept the great Youma sealed, much less creating one himself, this seal of his was without a doubt the one seal that Naruto had studied the most by far to the point of it very nearly being the _only_ seal he had studied. This was because he wanted to be able to check for himself that the seal had not cracked anywhere without relying on others being there to do it for him.

As a result of this, Naruto knew _exactly_ what it should look like, as well as its limits. Not to mention limit_ers_. If anything, his studies had led to his already great respect of the Yondaime being increased by nearly tenfold. The seal allowed communication, but only if Naruto himself consciously allowed it. The Kyuubi was completely unable to attack or affect him, both physically _and _mentally. The one and only exception to this was when Naruto used the fox's chakra, as this was unavoidable, but even then the effects were only temporary. And this was only some of the functions the massive seal had. There were still some features that remained hidden to the young shinobi, but he knew the important parts.

Bottom line, the fox doing something like this to him was _impossible, _unless some part had cracked. Badly.

Which it _hadn__'__t._

Naruto double-checked it, triple-checked it, and checked it four times more, just to be sure.

Nothing. There was absolutely _nothing_ out of place. No cracks, no shifts, not even the slightest waver. _Nothing_. It was almost as if the Kyuubi hadn't even _tried_ to do anything.

So, it wasn't the fox, then. What could have made him like this? Oh.

Genjutsu.

Of course! It had to be! What else could explain all this but an elaborate Genjutsu? He tried dispelling it.

Nothing happened.

He tried again, putting more force into it.

Nothing.

"**There is no Genjutsu, kit. This is real.****"**

Naruto wouldn't hear of it. _"__This _can't_ be real!__It has to be a Genjutsu! It HAS to be!__"_

The fox snarled it him. **"****Shut up, will you? I****'****ve been listening to you panicking for too damn long! Get a hold of yourself, brat. This. Is. Not! AN! ILLUSION!****"**

"_Lies. You__'__re lying!__"_

This time the Kyuubi _roared_, his patience wearing very thin, having been forced to listen to the boy's quite unguarded train of thoughts. **"****Snap out of it, you idiot brat! You know as well as I do that I couldn****'****t lie to you if I wanted to!****"**

It was true. A common misconception was that the only power Naruto had gained as a Jinchuuriki was greatly accelerated healing. It wasn't. He could detect the emotions of others. While this ability hadn't always been noticeable, this changed after Naruto used the Kyuubi's chakra for the first time, back in Wave. Ever since then, he had gradually grown an ability to not only sense a person's emotions, but could soon also tell if they were lying or not, and Kyuubi was no exception.

Naruto knew this. And the fox had not been lying. It was just difficult to accept that this was really happening. But it was.

Not an illusion. Real. Wouldn't go away. Not a dream.

_Real._

Right then and there, Uzumaki Naruto broke down and did something he hadn't done in years. He cried.

He had worked so hard to get the people of Konoha to see him for who he was, instead of for what he contained. For all fourteen years of his life, all he had wanted, _truly_ wanted, was for the people to acknowledge him, to accept him as a human, just like them. To _belong._ And now, just like that, _fourteen years_ of hard struggles...

Shattered. Like a carefully crafted sculpture of glass, carelessly dropped on the floor. Just like that. Poof.

Gone.

How were they ever going to accept him now that he wasn't even human anymore?

From his cage, Kyuubi sighed to himself. These things really weren't his forte. **"****Hey, kit. Get a hold of yourself.****"**

Naruto didn't answer.

"**Kit,****"** the fox pressed on. **"****There is **_**nothing**_** wrong with you.****"**

"_Oh, yeah?__"_ he snapped back. _"'__Nothing wrong with me__'__? Oh, _sure_ there__'__s nothing wrong with me! I... just look at me!__"_

"**Well, if you just calmed the fuck down, then perhaps you****'****d be able to think more rationally about this. I****'****m not about to do your work for you, brat.****"**

"_Calm down and do _what_?! Hide? Run away like a damn missing nin?!__"_

The Kyuubi frowned, snapping. Fuck being gentle, it wasn't his style. **"****Brat, shut the hell up. Where is the brave idiot I know? Where have that never-give-up attitude of yours gone?! Stop being such a bloody defeatist! This ISN****'****T YOU, you damn moron! Snap OUT of it! I****'****m sick and tired of your wallowing!****"**

Naruto's jaw tightened, but he didn't say anything.

The fox let out a low growl, oozing of disappointment.**"****So, that nindo of yours was a ruse, then?****"**

That, if anything, struck a chord within the young blond, and a powerful one at that. How dare that bastard fox claim he had given up his nindo!?

But hadn't he? Never give up, and never ever go back on a promise, was that not his nindo?

Was that not exactly what he had nearly done?

No. He wouldn't allow that.

This wasn't him. This wasn't how Uzumaki freaking Naruto was supposed to think.

This wasn't how Uzumaki Naruto _was_ thinking.

No. Where did his attitude go, indeed? This might have been the greatest damn fall that he had ever taken in his life, but was he not Uzumaki Naruto? Was he not the future Hokage? Damn straight he was. Uzumaki Naruto did _not_ give up. Was that not his nindo? Was that not his way of life?

Screw the rules. Fuck the world. He was Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage, and he did _not_ wallow. When life gives Uzumaki Naruto lemons, he damn well does not only make lemonade, but lemon cake, lemon pie and lemon ramen as well! And the rest of the lemons? Throw the things in life's face. After making them combustible, of course.

He was Uzumaki Naruto, and he did _not _give up. He _NEVER_ gave up. He'd make it through this, and he'd bloody well be grinning like a nut through the whole thing!

He straightened his back, pain forgotten and a determined grin dawning upon his furry, fanged visage. Yeah, he was Uzumaki Naruto. No matter what he looked like, that was one thing that would never change.

* * *

Jiraya was getting more and more frustrated by the minute. While the toads had confirmed the fact that his wayward student had indeed survived, and had not been taken by the Akatsuki to the sage's great relief, they were still for some reason unable to reverse-summon the boy to mount Myoboku, or even warp themselves over to his side. Old Fukusaku had said that the connection was too weak from wherever he was, which simply did not make any sense. The position shouldn't matter, as long as one was within the elemental nations. Anywhere on their world map, really. So why was the connection too weak?

He'd briefly considered the possibility that he could be in Makai, but the existence of that plane had never been even remotely confirmed, and it was in all honesty only a theoretical realm whose myth was created as a sort of explanation as for where the Bijuu came from. It became the myth of Makai, and it wasn't something he'd ever really believed in. It was still a possibility, but not one he even wanted to consider.

The Elder Sage hadn't been of much help, either. What he'd finally gotten from him after a few too many narcoleptic fits and bouts of dementia was that the fox had returned home. Jiraya had naturally assumed that the elder had been talking about the Kyuubi, but the answer he got when he spoke his presumption out loud suggested otherwise.

"Him too."

Just those two, simple words. Nothing more.

Huh. Logic suggested that in that case, it was Naruto he had been talking about, but that didn't make sense. Naruto's home was and had always been Konoha. That was, unless...

Had the old Sage been referring to the Namikaze's ancestral home, perhaps? He had the scrolls that Naruto had stored; they were in a storage scroll in his pouch, but the problem was that he couldn't for his life read them. On the other hand, thoughtful as he was, he had written down the four lines of text on the stone monument in romaji, both as his student had spoken them in their original tongue, and the translated version. It wasn't much, but it was the only key he had. As a spymaster he was a pretty good cryptograph, but he was well aware that it would be much more effective to send it to Konoha and let their team of professional cryptographers take care of it, since for all of his experience, he was only one person.

So, he did what he could. He had wasted no time getting his entire spy network focused on finding the boy, but nothing had turned up yet, which wasn't that big a surprise since only a day or two had passed, but he was worried about the kid.

In the end, there wasn't much more he could do, except waiting for some sign of progress in the search and inspect the carvings on the dome's stone walls.

Carvings of tall mountains, vast seas and a sky with two moons...

* * *

"_A Lilmothiit? What__'__s that?__"_

"**What you are,****"**was the fox's rather deadpan reply.

"_Oh, I get that,__"_Naruto argued. _"__But I still don__'__t know anything about them. Us. Whatever.__"_

"**I... Perhaps some other time, kit.****"**

"_What? But-__"_

"_**Later,**_** kit. Someone****'****s coming.****"**

Naruto tensed in apprehension. Too many what ifs swarmed his mind. Oh, he wanted to trust whoever it was that had brought him here, he really did, but he had a bit too many reasons not to. He was a shinobi, and the chances that the one that had taken care of him might be an enemy was still very much there, yet the most prominent reason still was his upbringing. Growing up, Naruto had learned the hard way not to trust easily, however nice a person might seem.

A man walked in, lantern in hand. Naruto reflexively reached for a kunai, only to curse as he remembered that he didn't have any on him. To make it worse, he was far from his best, injured as he was, but while the man did seem to be very strong, he didn't have the build of a fighter, but rather that of a hard labourer, ergo a civilian. In the end, he'd probably be able to get away if he needed to.

But the man only made a few pacifying gestures. ["Easy, I'm not going to hurt you."]

Naruto frowned, not dropping his guard. He didn't know that tongue. _"__Oi, Kyuubi. What__'__s he saying?__"_

"**Not sure,****"** was the slightly hesitant reply. **"****It****'****s... vaguely familiar. It sounds like old Atmorean, and a bit like Elven, but...****"**

"_But? And what__'__s Atmorean?__"_

["You were quite injured when I found you. I'm surprised you can move already,"] the civilian went on, not realising that the young fox had no idea what he was saying.

"**The language of the humans on this plane, last I checked.****"**

"_Can you translate?__"_

"**Languages change, kit. It****'****s been at least three thousand years since I last visited this land. I****'****ll give it a try, sure, but I make no promises.****"**

Naruto decided that he could live with that; it was better than what he had expected from the fox, anyway. _"__So, what was he saying?__"_

"**From what I can decipher, he****'****s not our enemy. As for the second part, he****'****s either surprised over something, or he****'****s saying that he lost his best shirt in a mine shaft.****"**

"_Right...__"_ the boy replied, unsure what to think about it all. Since when did Kyuubi joke about? Or was he being serious? The fox had sounded rather deadpan about it.

Meanwhile, the civilian started to notice what was going on. ["You _do_ understand me, right?"] He might not be very used to dealing with beastfolk as very few stopped by his little village for very long, and it's not like he was the innkeeper, but he knew utter confusion when he saw it, human or not.

The person who he was _pretty_ sure was a Khajiit didn't move. He took it as a no. Well, that was a bugger. He didn't know any other language. Why would he need to? He was but a simple blacksmith, and his wife handled the trading.

It didn't take long until the two realised that their meagre ways of oral communication wasn't going to work and made a rather impressive attempt at communicating through gestures, which soon ended up in what they were pretty sure was a mutual cussing match in their respective tongues which did little good, except for perhaps relieving the tension a bit. The civilian eventually gave up and left, much to Naruto's frustration, but the man came back within a minute with a bunch of paper sheets and pieces of charcoal. It made communication easier, even if it was mostly through base symbols and pictures, but it made it easier nonetheless, and Naruto felt much more at ease with the situation.

The man was named Torolf, he found out, and he was the blacksmith of the town he was in. Helgen, it was called. He still didn't know exactly where he was on the world map, except that it was up north, at least according to the weather. Torolf was a friendly soul and eccentric enough for him to be at ease around the man. It didn't take long before he was introduced to his wife and son. His wife, Matlara her name was, had a sharp tongue on her, and knew quite a thing or two about hunting. Their son Haming was a rather peaceful spirit, even though he dreamed of becoming a solider.

It should be noted that no one in this family could cook to save their lives, so they went to the local inn every day. Every meal. Naruto just couldn't stand for this and soon saddled himself with the mission to cook the meals. He wasn't exactly the best cook in the world, nor was he used to any of the ingredients that were available in this land, but he managed and the results were still worlds better than what anyone in this family could produce.

Since he was stuck in this ridiculously cold world where little made sense and he had extreme difficulties of communicating, the boy had decided to stay for a while, at least until he learned the language. Torolf and his family had been nice enough to offer him a roof above his head, even if it was the _barn_. The very least he could do was to make sure they got proper food. The main problem was that nobody had even heard about ramen. It was depressing, really, but he'd have to make due until he somehow got back to the Elemental Nations.

Oh yeah, I didn't mention that, did I? Naruto had realised that he apparently was on a different planet, possibly in an entirely different world. Nobody had really told him this outright, but the fact that there wasn't just one, but rather _two_ moons in the sky was a rather massive hint. He still didn't know what the hell had happened to him after opening that big-ass scroll, and he had absolutely no idea as of how to get back, but he'd realised that dwelling upon such things would do him little to no good at the moment. If he got here, he could get back; he just had to figure out how to do so. At this point in time, he settled for tackling each day as they came. To get his answers, he'd have to ask, and to be able to ask, he'd have to be able to speak their tongue in the first place. Fortunately, Kyuubi was able to help him a bit along the way, even with his somewhat outdated linguistic skillset.

A few days passed and the young Lilmothiit was back up in top condition, and he wasted no time making sure everything was in order. To his great relief, his chakra system was still fully functional, and perhaps even more so than it was before. The first thing he attempted after realising this was to summon one of the toads, since he wanted to contact his sensei, only to find out that he couldn't. He had nearly panicked, believing that he could no longer use Ninjutsu, but then he tried the Rasengan, and it worked perfectly, no problem, so the issue did not lie with his ability to use chakra. Perhaps it was because he was in a different world? That would make sense, in a way. Not being able to contact Ero-sennin was depressing, but there was nothing he could do about it for the moment, so he didn't let it hold down his mood for long.

On a different note, his chakra control seemed to have skyrocketed after his foxification for some reason or the other. Kyuubi had eventually told him that this was because the tail had tenketsu as well as the rest of his body, and while he had been pretty vague about it, the great fox claimed that the reason that his control had been so bad in the first place was not because of his massive capacity, but because of the fact that his chakra system told itself that it should have more tenketsu than it had, resulting in an effect similar to that of a Hyuuga having blocked off about a fifth of his Tenketsu.

Naruto had been sceptic regarding this theory, since it would imply that the Lilmothiit genes had not only been faffing about in his DNA from the very beginning, but should by all means have been his dominant set of genes, which made no sense since he had been a human all of his life until this point, but further investigation actually supported Kyuubi's theory rather than his own.

At first, Naruto had been very firm in his opinion that his new body was bad news and a liability with no silver lining, but the first moment he started going through his regular Taijutsu katas, he was proven very wrong indeed. The tail that he had at first been horrified about having was a boon like no other, and not just because it gave him better chakra control from having the so-called 'right' amount of tenketsu. No, that didn't even begin to cover the advantages a tail brought forth. The reason as of why most animals have tails in the first place is to enhance their balance and flow of movement, and this was something that our young hero noticed pretty much immediately when he started training again. It was such a massive difference that he'd have to be ten times the idiot he had been two years ago not to notice.

And it felt so _right._

He'd believed that his new body would be a liability, but only days later he could barely comprehend how the stiff, _unbalanced_ body of a human could effectively fight anymore. His shifted leg joins made each step he took so much softer, and his tail made everything just _flow_...

He loved it.

It was as if a wedge had been removed. Taijutsu had never been his strong point. Sure, he could throw a killer punch, but his legwork had always been near abysmal, no matter what he did. Jiraya had spent a lot of time with him to try and remedy this, and he had improved, but he had still been worlds apart from where he should be. Now, this seemed not to be a problem in the least. Everything just clicked. His body moved _exactly_ how he wanted it to, and all of a sudden, Taijutsu wasn't a problem anymore.

As if his body had been _wrong,_ but was no longer.

So perhaps the Kyuubi was right, and it had been in his DNA all along, and it was only when he was sent to this place that those genes had... 'activated', so to speak. It was strange, and it still sounded just as illogical to Naruto as it had before, but he was no medic. So he did what he did best and simply took one day at a time. What else could he do, really?

After a week and a half of Naruto trying to keep going as normally as he could, ergo training his ass off every minute he wasn't cooking, sleeping or trying to communicate, Torolf decided to teach the young man the craft of blacksmithing.

He had been surprised at first, but decided that it would be a good idea. Naruto had lost his admittedly small supply of kunai and shuriken somewhere on his unexpected trip across worlds, and from what he had been able to piece together, the throwable category of weaponry was rarely used these days and thus very hard to come by, so making his own seemed to be his best shot, really.

What he hadn't expected was just how _fun_ the art was. It wasn't exactly Fuuinjutsu, nothing could compete with that glorious, _glorious_ art, but there was something simply relaxing and almost poetic in hammering metal into the graceful shapes that of death-dealing utilities. As usual, he had been a fast learner and picked up the art surprisingly fast. Torolf had been very impressed. Furthermore, thanks to his differing cultural references he had a lot of fresh influences to freshen up the more classic designs that the Nords, the people of this land, seemed to favour. Unfortunately, the young traveller seemed to have no aptitude for swords whatsoever, or maces or even axes for that matter. Daggers he was perfectly fine with, although not as good as he was with hand-to-hand combat, and he couldn't help but feel quite sad about it. After all, one needed a proper understanding of the inner workings of an object before one could even attempt making it. So far, he'd been forced to settle for kunai and shuriken.

Armour smithing went better, surprisingly enough. He had been raised as a shinobi, and while he had been far from the best, he did know what was practical and not (at least apart from colouring), and what did and what didn't offer enough manoeuvrability. It made for quite a few interesting sets of armour that apparently had been sold quite quickly, and for a hefty amount of money, too. He wasn't exactly an expert blacksmith, even after two months, but apparently his works were unique and practical enough for people to buy them and that was definitely enough for Naruto.

Somewhere around the second month, Torolf introduced him to different kinds of metal, and the smith trainee had practically fallen in love with both dwarven metal and orichalcum, the first simply because it was the single most orange thing that he had encountered in this world so far, and orichalcum because its green shade reminded him of the lush forests of his home. He tried finding new ways of using the minerals and it didn't take long for him to come up with a rather fascinating alloy with steel and the green ore. It made the material surprisingly light, yet highly sturdy. After a while, it was all he used for his throwing weapons.

These experiments of his had a downside, however. Minerals were expensive, and Torolf and his family weren't exactly the richest people around. Naruto, being who he is, couldn't stand the thought of being the cause of his benefactors' economic decline and decided to take matters into his own hands. So, he started adventuring. He didn't go too far; he stayed within the holds of Whiterun and Falkreath, but it was still enough for him to be able to pay for his own minerals with a rather hefty margin. He mostly did bounty hunting, as that was what was closest to what he had been doing in Konoha, but it was difficult to resist the occasional dungeon delving.

This life of his lasted for a while. It was... surprisingly peaceful. When he had finally learned the melodic language of the Nords to a satisfying degree, it didn't take long before he had bonded with most of the villagers of Helgen.

He was happy, he realised. He missed his home, every day, but he couldn't help but feel that he was actually being happier in this village than he had ever been in his life. He did feel a bit guilty about thinking that way, but... He was happy now, nobody hated him for reasons beyond his control, and things were _peaceful_.

However, he had a strong feeling that it wasn't going to last.

* * *

On the fifth day of the fourth month since Naruto's arrival, things began to stir. Imperial soldiers arrived, reinforcing the already impressive town guard. A caravan of prisoners was approaching.

On one of these wagons sat four people. Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm, bound and gagged. Ralof, a Stormcloak solider, bound. Lokir, Horse thief, bound and in rags. A Khajiit woman, with fur white as snow. Cast in chains, dressed in rags.

Change was approaching.

* * *

**No, I am not dead. Yes, chocolate cookies are delicious. Yes, I love it when you leave reviews. Woop. I'm gonna _sleep_ now.**

**You may have noticed I changed the summary. Yeah, I think it sounds better now. What do you guys think?**

**Quite a lot of people have been asking me about Pairings, and to be honest, I haven't really decided yet, aside from femDovahkiin x J'Zargo. Either way romance won't play an important part in this story. The one I'm considering the most is Naruto x Fuu, but I haven't decided yet.**

**So, until next month, I'm leaving you with that little cliffhanger. Don't hate me!**


	3. The Calm before the Storm

**Sorry for non-acceptable lateness. Got hit by a major case of Writer's block. Then I got Okami for Christmas. And Assassin's Creed III. ****And Pokémon Black 2. Go figure.**

**I find it very flattering that so many of you who reviewed came with so many suggestions. It really makes me happy that you care to that level. One amusing thing though is that just about everything that you guys have pointed out, I have already made plans for. What those plans are, you'll just have to wait and see... Or log in and send me a PM, asking me. I'm not overly tight-lipped about my plans **

**About the details about the Lilmothiit race that so many of you requested; they are actually a canon race and have their own page on the TES wiki, but for all of you lazy buggers, I'll write down what I could find about them in the second AN's at the bottom of the page. The information available is VERY sparse, so as for the rest... You'll just have to wait and see what I've cooked up. Don't worry; it will only be a few chapters until (part of) the story will be told. Patience, people.**

**On a different note, a friend of mine from school read this story and had apparently never heard the expression "cool as a cucumber" before, and because of that, whenever he sees a picture of Jiraya, his mind now substitutes him with a cucumber. With a smiley face. Even in Jiraya's dying scene. That was totally intentional, by the way. Totally.**

**Seriously, that's not my fault, dude. Your brain did that all by its own.**

* * *

**Journey of a Lilmothiit**

**Chapter 3**  
**The Calm before the Storm**

* * *

The waters of Lake Ilinalta shimmered brightly in the rays of the rising sun. Its clear, almost crystalline water was nearly freezing cold through most of the year, but in this early morning of Sun's Height, the water was mild, pleasantly cool as a contrast to the warm air of a summer morning.

On the southern shore of this lake, beside a large boulder, there was a simple camp, made up of a small tent, a single bedroll and an improvised fireplace. A set of rather unique leather armor plated with small, almost mesh-like scales of a light green metal lay folded by the tent. A large slab of slowly cooling, grilled venison meat was perched over the dying embers, waiting patiently for the camp's only inhabitant.

Naruto was taking a morning swim in the lake. It was a habit he had taken up quite soon after his arrival, despite the cold waters. As it turned out, the Nords weren't very keen about cleanliness. They bathed no more often than twice a month, which they claimed was enough. And often, here in Tamriel. Pah, he called bullshit on that one. At _least_ twice a week, that was his standards. Unfortunately, they had not seen fit to invent a pipe system yet, so there was no running water to be found. He had to settle for Lake Ilinalta, and that was fine with him. It was a beautiful lake and these trips gave him some peace and quiet for his own thoughts.

Looking down into the mostly clear waters as he washed his face, he couldn't help but let his gaze linger at the surface. He wasn't entirely used to the fanged visage that was reflected back at him yet. It was unsettling just how similar his face was to that of the Kyuubi's. It was still clearly _his _face, sure enough, and anyone with attention to details would see it. His angles were softer, he still had his own coloring, and his eyes were not nearly as fierce as the Youma's, but no matter which way you put it, he still looked like the Kyuubi's nephew.

That was a thought that didn't bother him nearly as much now as it would have a few months earlier. Ever since the scroll incident, that big old fox had been having a rather drastic change in attitude towards him. He still didn't really know why, as the big oaf avoided the subject like the plague, but Naruto didn't argue; everybody had their secrets and he wasn't going to pry. It wasn't worth it, when it came down to it. He knew it had something to do with the Lilmothiit, his supposed ancestors, their apparent disappearance from the face of Tamriel and their subsequent appearance in the Elemental nations, but the Youma wasn't very forthcoming. Whenever he tried to breach the subject, all he would get from the guy was a guarded reading of guilt, along with the words 'perhaps some other day, kit'. So far, that day hadn't come, but he could wait.

The change of attitude was welcome however, since the Kyuubi was, in the end, the only familiar face that he had around. He had also finally learned the large bastard's name, too. Kurama, it was. The guy was still a rude bastard with an overly short fuse, but at least he could consider Kurama a friend now. Using the definition of 'friend' rather loosely, of course.

Having washed the last of his sleepiness away, Naruto returned to his camp on the shore, wanting to eat his rather protein-filled breakfast before it got cold. He had to get back to Helgen in a few hours; Torolf needed the metal he'd brought in from Whiterun.

* * *

Trekking up the worn path to Helgen, Naruto adjusted his armor, having rushed a bit when putting it on, which had led to a rather uncomfortable fit. He was rather satisfied with his armor, being the first real armor above pure Leather that he'd been able to modify to his needs and desires without compromising the quality. He'd used the standard Leather armor as base but forgone the pauldrons, since they would only serve to get in the way. He'd had to skip over the boots entirely too, replacing them with rather long, segmented greaves and nothing at all for his feet, since his paws made such things redundant. Finally, he'd enforced the whole thing with his personal scale-mesh, made from his favorite alloy of mostly Orichalcum with some Iron, creating a bright, gray-ish green metal that was both sturdy and surprisingly light.

Taking a deep breath, the young Lilmothiit gazed upon the small town that had been his home away from home for over three months that was now only a hundred meters away. A guardsman standing by the gates recognized him easily.

"Hey, fox-kid!"

Back in Konoha, that would have been an insult, a verbal sneer of the greatest kind. Here in Helgen, it was merely affectionate teasing. Something he had kind of deserved with his intense insistence that contrary to their assumptions, he was _not_ Khajiit; he was Lilmothiit. Not cat. Fox. He wasn't entirely sure why he was feeling so defensive about it, but it did nothing to lessen it. He supposed it was as if somebody would call a human 'Spriggan' or something silly like that. After a while someone started calling him fox-kid instead of using his actual name, which they all actually knew, Helgen being a small village and him being the only non-human and all that, and it just sort of spread.

Naruto grinned to himself. Unlike him, the possibly last Lilmothiit, the town guard was pretty anonymous. In fact, he had more difficulty telling them apart than he did the ANBU back home, but on the plus side, the guardsmen had more personality. Kakashi-sensei didn't count; he was _ex_-ANBU, after all.

"Any news, Glen?"

"I'm Olaf!"

"Oh, you all look the same..."

The guard grumbled half-heartedly. It was just something one had to get used to as a guardsman.  
"Did you hear about Ulfric?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "No?"

Olaf seemed to grin, happy to be the first one to share the news. "General Tullius finally managed to catch that bastard and his closest lieutenants. They're on the way here for the execution."

"Here? In Helgen?" the youngster asked, caught off-guard. He knew who Ulfric was; he was the infamous leader of the Stormcloak rebellion, after all. Three months was more than enough time to have snapped up that little tidbit. "That seems like a big… ekse… esketu…"

"Execution."

"What you said. But why Helgen? Wouldn't the Imperial City or at least Solitude be better?" Inwardly, Naruto grumbled about his still broken and obviously lacking Tamrielic.

The guard shrugged. "Don't know much about the details, but the Legion will be sending reinforcements to up the security. Oh, speaking of reinforcements, Captain Hadvar was asking for you."

Naruto groaned. "And I just got back... Oh well, might just as well see what he wants. See ya, Glen!"

"It's Olaf, dammit!"

* * *

The barracks were bustling with activity, the imperial reinforcements having already arrived. Hadvar, the acting Captain of the town guard was as a result of this swamped with duty, giving out orders to the right and left. He wasn't really a captain, strictly speaking, but he was the leader of the local guard, and despite his young age he had the most training out of all of them, so they tended to simply call him 'Captain'. He seemed to brighten up significantly when Naruto stepped through the door.

"Ah, you're back!"

"Just in time for the party, I hear..." the young fox muttered. The prospect of an execution really put a damper on his mood.

"So you heard? Don't like it, do you?"

Naruto shook his head. "Should I? No matter whose, a life is still a life…"

"You never did like killing, eh Nar?"

The fox hummed, eyes attaining a rare sparkle of wisdom, the kind of wisdom that came from experience. "Life is a gift that should never be returned early."

Hadvar sighed. He'd heard that many times from the old adventuring veteran that spent most days at the tavern. "In truth, I agree with you, kid, but neither you nor I am in charge here. All we can do is make sure that innocent lives aren't spilled. That is why I called for you."

The Lilmothiit raised an eyebrow. "You want me to help you? But I'm not a guard..."

"You're still the best fighter in town," the guard commander pointed out.

That actually said more about the town than it did about him, in Naruto's opinion, but it was still quite the praise, something that the young boy was far from used to. He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "I'm not..."

Hadvar punched his shoulder teasingly. "And who was it that defeated those bandit spellswords who attacked us three weeks ago, eh? Stop being so modest, Nar."

He chuckled, blushing. "Heh. I guess I did that..."

The young captain frowned slightly, knowing the young Lilmothiit well enough by this point to tell that the kid was hiding something. "What's bothering you?"

Naruto's nervous smile dropped like a sinking rock. Hadvar was right, something _was_ bothering him. There was just something in the air... He couldn't put his finger on it. Ever since he first heard of the whole execution business, he'd felt a strange sort of... premonition, as if something was about to happen. Something terrible. But he didn't want Hadvar to know; the poor sod had enough on his plate as it were. With disturbingly practiced ease, the young shinobi played it off as something else. "It's just... I'm surprised you all trust me..."

"Nonsense!" Hadvar scoffed. "With you here the security in Helgen has just short of doubled in efficiency. You alone have fought off more bandits in these three months than most of the guards here have in their life! And you're what, sixteen?"

"Fifteen in a few months, actually..."

The older of the two gave the younger a friendly punch in the back. "See my point? You might not be a Nord by blood, lad, but you by Kyne herself sure have the heart o' one! You've done more for this town in this short a time than many could ever hope to. Give me _one_ reason I shouldn't trust you."

Naruto on the other hand was pretty sure he could list more than a few reasons, having been raised in the paranoid society that he'd been, but it didn't matter; he had just wanted to avert attention from the previous subject. He chuckled. "All right, all right, you win. So, sentry duty?" He silently cheered for knowing the somewhat obscure word, thanks to having spent a lot of time with the guards.

"Aye." Hadvar nodded. "I'm positioning you at the-"

"Big bro Naru!"

At the sound of the familiar voice, Naruto immediately brightened up, mentally dropping all that ill premonitions and military action was and turned towards the young boy that he had come to recognize as something of a little brother ran towards him, smiling brightly. "Haming!"

The eleven-year-old tackled his older brother-figure with a hug, laughing in glee. "You're back!"

Naruto laughed right back, catching the young Nord boy and swung him up onto his shoulders. "Yep! Your big bro is back!"

Hadvar chuckled, smiling at the two. The two boys had bonded so very quickly over the three months and it was truly heartwarming to see them play. To see how Torolf's young one seemed to bring out the more natural playfulness in the young teen who in his opinion seemed to be growing up way too fast. It would be cruel to keep them here any long, he thought, so he dismissed the teen. "Be there at the south-eastern tower in two hours. OK?"

The blonde fox grinned back at the captain. "Tavern-tower. Two hours. Got it."

As Naruto and Haming turned around and left the building, Hadvar resumed his duties with a small smile on his lips. He was a busy man who had a lot of business to do, but now that the young straggler was back in the village, he couldn't help but feel as if the clouds had parted somewhat.

* * *

"So big bro?! Did you fight any bears this time? Did you see any Spriggans? Were you attacked by bandits? Who did you have to hunt down? Huh? Tell me! Tell me!"

Naruto laughed softly at the young boy's antics as he sat high up on his shoulders. It had only been a few days, but he had missed the kid. Grinning widely, he said, "Oh, did I, did I now? You want to know?"

"Yeah!" Haming exclaimed. "Of course I want to know! What happened, brother? Tell me!"

"I don't believe you~," the blond fox teased in a sing-song tone.

The eleven-year-old pouted so much that Naruto could _hear_ it. "Brother!"

Naruto chuckled, relenting. "Alright, alright. Well, there was this little encounter I had on the east road to Rorikstead..."

Naruto chuckled to himself as Haming listened to his story with gusto. Haming kind of reminded him of Konohamaru back home. They had the same kind of feel to them, the same kind of energy that never failed to bring a smile to his face. He had even been teaching the young Nord how to throw shuriken in his spare time. When Torolf wasn't watching, obviously. His sensei would have his head if he knew that Naruto let his little cub play with lethally sharp objects like that. Not that he would ever let the little one get hurt, of course.

"And then?" Haming urged on, practically bouncing on Naruto's shoulders.

"Well, I punched him out, of course!" the blond said, as if it was an everyday thing.

"A _bear? _With your _bare hands?__"_

"Well, no..."

"Hah!" the kid exclaimed. "I knew it! Not even you can take down a bear bare-handed!"

"Actually," Naruto chuckled, before pouncing on the unsuspecting Haming with a tickle-attack. "I took him down _bear-_handed!"

"Hah-Br-brother! Hahah... th- hah- that's lame!" the boy somehow managed to squeeze out between laughs as he succumbed to the attack of his brother-figure. "La-ha-ha-hamest he-ver!"

"Oh, shut it. It wasn't _that_ bad..."

"**It was. Just about the worst pun I've ever heard,****"** Kurama decided to point out.

"_Oh, who asked _you_?__"_

But the jovial tone in the Youma's voice was swiftly dropped like a rock. "**Kit?****"**

"_Is something the matter?__"_

"**Can you feel it? **_**That?**_**"**

Naruto hummed inwardly. _"__Yeah, I do. What _is_ it?__"_

"**Bad news, that****'****s what it is,****"** Kurama said, sighing. **"****Just make sure to keep an extra eye out for trouble, OK?****"**

"Big bro?"

"Hm?" The voice of a puzzled Haming snapped Naruto back to the land of the corporeal.

"You zoned out. Something the matter?"

He shook his head, smiling at the little one. "It's nothing. Come on; let's get these ingots to Torolf-sensei."

"Naruto?" Haming said when he was once again perched upon the shoulders of the blond fox.

"Yes?"

"You never told me what that means, that senn-sej thing you say. What does it mean?"

"I haven't? Well, sensei means Teacher, in my tongue. It can mean other things too, though."

The Nord child hummed thoughtfully. "How was your homeland like?"

Naruto chuckled. It was easy to forget that despite the fact that he had been here for three whole months already, he's only been able to speak their language well enough to communicate without much problem for a few weeks. "Well, it's a lot warmer there, for one."

Haming huffed. "It's not _that_ cold here!"

At that remark, the blond couldn't hold his laughter in. "Hah! You haven't been outside Skyrim in your whole life, have you, Haming?"

"Well, no..."

Naruto chuckled. "I haven't been in a land this cold since that quest in Yuuki no Kuni."

"Ju-ki?"

"No, Yuuki. The land of snow. It was all snow and ice and... all that."

"Like Winterhold?"

The blond teen shrugged. "Haven't been there, but yes, kind of like Winterhold, frozen and cold and stuff. I'd take the warm, lush forests of Hi no Kuni over Yuuki any day."

"You really miss your home, don't you?" Haming said, suddenly very solemn.

Naruto hummed, as to say yes. Sensing the little one's growing distress, he was quick to reassure the boy. "Don't you worry! I still don't even know how to get back in the first place. You're gonna be stuck with me for a while!"

"Not true!" the boy accused, not cheered up in the least. "You're going to leave! You said you're leaving for the Mages' College in two weeks!"

"Aa, that's true," the older admitted. "But I'm hardly _joining_ them; I just need their help to find my way home."

But Haming just kept on muttering, "You're leaving..."

Any reply that he would have conjured was drowned out by a very familiar shout. "Hey! Look who's back!" It was Torolf, ever upbeat, standing by his burning forge. "How was the hunt?"  
Before Naruto could answer, the smith frowned, almost glaring at his apprentice. "Why is my little Cub sad?"

Naruto made a few pacifying gestures, his face clearly betraying the fact that Torolf was scaring him shitless. The smith was quite the papa bear when it came to his dear little 'cub'. "He's just being sad about me leaving."

Torolf softened considerably in the blink of an eye and scooped up his son, giving him a noogie. "Don't be a moron, son. 'S not like he won't visit us? _Right?_"

The blond grinned. "Of course I will! I'd be mad not to!"

"Promise?" asked the little one.

"Promise."

"Pinky-swear?"

With a smile, Naruto held out his furry pinky. "Pinky-swear."

Haming brightened up, now grinning brightly as he returned the gesture, sealing the deal. It wasn't as if he wouldn't come back to visit them anyway, but if Haming wanted reassurance, then Naruto had no problem providing it. Besides, he always kept his promises, no matter what.

"But Naru, I can't see why you would want to go to those wizards. Those Mages are nothing but trouble, I hear," Torolf said.

"You keep telling me that, sensei," Naruto replied. "But things like… things like this… the whole world-crossing thing aren't natural. If anyone would know about it, it would be the mages. I _need_ to get home, Torolf."

"I know," the man admitted with a sigh. "I know. I just don't trust those bloody magicians. What they do, it just ain't natural…"

"And so is not world-hopping."

Torolf smirked, chuckling at his apprentice's still lacking and quite broken language. "Aye, you're right. But the Wizards are fancy folk with fancy words, and you ain't gonna impress them with that tongue of yours."

Naruto pouted. "I'm getting better…"

"That you are, lad. That you are, at a surprising rate, too," the smith agreed. "But you ain't gonna get much better in this little bump in the road."

"A bump in the road with a wall," the teen remarked.

"Aye, a bump in the road with a mighty wall, indeed. Anyway little kit, I happen to have had a bit of a talk with a good colleague in Whiterun…"

"Oh? Who?"

Torolf grinned widely, puffing up his chest as if boasting of having clubbed at troll to death with a piece of firewood. "Why, Eorlund Graymane himself!"

Naruto's eyes widened. Eorlund Graymane he had heard of. Was hard not to, having lived with a smith for three months. "You mean the best smith in Skyrim, that Eorlund? What did he say?"

The smith chuckled yet again, enjoying the way he was dragging it out. It was always amusing. "Weeeell… Incidentally I showed him some of your creations…"

Parabolic ears perked up. The young shinobi was hooked. "Really? What did he say?"

Chuckling, Torolf ruffled the teen's mane. "He was quite impressed, I'd say. With good reason, too. Wanted to teach you a thing or two himself, he did. So what do you say? You gonna bite?"

Naruto couldn't do much but doing a rather impressive imitation of a fish. Eorlund Graymane, _the _Eorlund Graymane had been impressed by _him!_ Wanted to teach him steelwork! _Personally!_ The situation was just unreal. Would this mean that he would be allowed to work at the _Skyforge? _

Oh, he'd heard of the Skyforge, all right. It was legendary. The bards even sang songs about the ancient eagle forge every now and then at the inn. For any smith, even a budding one such as himself, it was a dream coming true.

"But _da-ad!_" Haming's voice cut through his flabbergasted mind. "You're making him leave _sooner!_ Meanie dad!"

"Oh, don't be an idiot, son," said the smith, lightly bonking the little one on the head. "Naru here wants to get home. Can you blame him for that?"

Haming muttered. "Well... no, but..."

"And, the Companions travel a lot," Torolf explained and once again turned to address Naruto. "That means they hear a lot. You're looking for information, so I'd say you should start with them."

Naruto nodded, before frowning. "You think they'll let me in?"

That earned him a chop over the head. "I _know_ that you've got a brain in that skull of yours. Use it for once!" Torolf sighed while the young teen nursed his now aching head. "Eorlund is more or less the smith _of_ the Companions. If you were to be his pupil, their doors would be open. By Shor, I wouldn't be surprised if they'd invite you to join, with your battle prowess!"

Naruto blushed, scratching the back of his head. "I'll think about it. Anyway, I'll go store away the metals; Hadvar asked me to stand sentry at the Tavern-tower during the execution, so I need to hurry."

"Well what are you waiting for, then? Get a move on!"

Chuckling, the blond fox started walking to the barn to load off his burden, but stopped as little Haming once again called out for him. "Big brother!" Naruto turned around, meeting the intense, glaring gaze of the young Nord. "We'll play later, got it?"

Naruto chuckled. "Got it."

And with that, the young Lilmothiit walked off. It would seem that he had a lot to think about.

* * *

**I didn't get nearly as far as I'd wanted to. In fact, I wanted to write through the Unbound quest, but if I did, I'd have been forced to let you wait at least another twenty days, so I saved that for the next chapter, which I have no plans on delaying. This time, I'll be on schedule.**

**Now, the canon data on the Lilmothiit, as promised:**

**Now, as I said, the canon data on the Lilmothiit is very sparse indeed. On the wiki, this is all that is written on the Lilmothiit data page:**

"**The Lilmothiit are a lost, unknown beast race that resemble canines. Their fate is unknown, and the only information on them is stated in the Pocket Guide to the Empire (**_**Oblivion**_**).**

**Biology**

**Like the Khajiit and Argonians, humanoid in form, and animalian in appearance.**

**History**

**The Lilmothiit used to call Black Marsh their homeland. It is not said why they left, some believe they were driven out by the Argonians.**

**They were a tribal race like most beast folk, with the exception of Khajiit.**

**The Akaviri may have had interactions with the Lilmothiit, shown by the Akaviri using Lilmothiit ruins as grounds for prisons.****"**

**The name Lilmothiit appears in but three sentences in the PGttE, reading thus:**

"**In additional to the reptilian Argonians, who are today Black Marsh's most visible denizen, there were once tribes of men (...) and tribes of mer (...) and even a tribe who may have been related to the Khajiit of Elsweyr, the vulpine Lilmothiit. ****"**

"**The southern coastal regions, not surprisingly, were the realms of the Lilmothiit, though they were a nomadic group and left few enduring signs of their existence that were not covered up by later civilizations.****"**

**And finally: ****"****The worst of the dungeons was constructed in the following era by Potentate Versidue-shae on the ruins of the Lilmothiit community called Blackrose.****"**

**Short version, they were more or less like Khajiit, only foxes, no-one knows how they disappeared, they lived in the Black marsh, at least most of the time, had a nomadic, tribal culture, founded Blackrose (and likely the city of Lilmoth) and the fact that the southern coastal regions was their realms is apparently not surprising.**

**That's all. No really, that is **_**everything **_**there is on the canon Lilmothiit. As is it all the info I'm having any intention of giving you for now. Besides, this is more than Naruto himself knows at this point, anyway.**


	4. Black Wings in the Cold

**Haters are still welcome!**

**For those that don't know, I usually write my rough draft in a physical notebook. The biggest pros of doing this are that a notebook is light and small enough to carry in your pocket and doesn't have the annoying keyboard of a mobile phone, and I get a free although mandatory editing run. The cons, well… Sure, it takes longer, but the biggest con is still this: jhonie . webs apps / photos / photo?photoid =140323590 (Remove the spaces. Photo was taken 2011, and it's only gotten worse since)**

**Yeah. That's why I'm later than I intended. Even I have difficulties reading that. Yes. That's my handwriting. You're welcome.**

**Now, onwards with that which you've all waited for…**

**No, not the disclaimer, it's still redundant.**

* * *

**Journey of a Lilmothiit**  
**Chapter 4**  
**Black wings in the Cold**

* * *

Fire. Wherever he looked, fire, overwhelming, devouring. Murderous, hungry fire. A constant.

He was running. Running, running, running, praying that the weight on his back was still all right. How? How could everything have gone so wrong so fast?

How long had it been? Not half an hour ago, he'd still been standing on his tower summit, doing some katas to pass the time.

It felt like a lifetime had passed since.

When the imperial caravan of fugitives had arrived twenty minutes prior, Naruto had been astounded by the sight. Never before had he seen such a massive gathering of the Cyrodiilic Samurai. At least, that's what the shinobi saw them as, since their purpose was similar enough. The caravan was grand enough, but in the end its purpose still disturbed the boy. He understood the reasons for the mass-execution, as well as its importance, but he still couldn't bring himself to stand behind it as a supporter.

Perhaps he should follow his sensei's advice and try to join the Companions after all. They were mercenaries without any affiliation other than to themselves, which was quite alluring, for he had no intention to take sides in a war that wasn't his to fight. He doubted the conflict would be over with the death of Ulfric, the rebel leader. This execution would only make him a martyr to them, strengthening their resolve to fight.

No, this wasn't something he wanted to be a part of, so joining an openly unaffiliated guild like the Companions did seem to be for the best. That wasn't something without its drawbacks either, though. Naruto felt certain apprehension regarding the idea of joining a guild, especially one as tightly knit as the Companions. After all, he was searching for a way home, to leave this world for an entirely different one, and he wasn't sure that he'd actually be able to return here again, despite what he'd told Torolf and Haming. Oh, he'd try, by all means. He'd do his best, he'd promised to, but if it was impossible, it was impossible, and tying more bonds than he already had could become problematic.

Naruto sighed to himself. When had he become so detached? It wasn't like him. Connecting with people was in his _nature_, why was he trying to deny it? This whole business had really shaken him up, it seemed.

No. He'd keep following his instincts. Sure, they were kinda the reason he was in this mess in the first place, but to be honest, he wasn't entirely sure that this was a bad thing after all. True, he'd been pulled away from his home and everybody he'd ever known, at least apart from Kurama, and he'd kinda been put through a forced racial switch, but on the other hand, if all of that hadn't happened, he would never had come to Helgen, and he'd grown very fond of the tiny little community.

With a wall. A tiny little community with a wall. Can't forget the wall.

As the carts began to roll in, Naruto let his gaze wander over them, doing his best to remain neutral, but his attempts were steadily failing. So many people, just being shipped along to meet the axe, like cattle. It made him queasy just thinking about it. Why did Hadvar have to sign him up for this again? Right, strongest in the village, reliable and all that.

Why did they have to make such a spectacle about it, anyway? Had it been in the Elemental Nations, they would simply have sent an assassin to deal with Ulfric. Swift and clean, and no needless spectacle. On that thought, wasn't there a guild of assassins here, anyway? The dank brothers or whatever they called themselves. Why hadn't anybody thought of hiring them to take out the rebel leader? Probably because they were Nords, he figured, and their code of honour could rival that of the Samurai of Iron.

"Stupid Nords and their stupid Bushido," the blond muttered to himself as the many carts kept rolling in, settling at the large courtyard that usually was their town square, bustling with market stalls. The usually merry place was now reduced to naught but a site of death and despair.

"**How poetic.****"**

"_Fuck off, Kurama.__"_

The Youma snickered. **"****Really?****"**

He would have shuddered at the implication, but he was growing used to Kurama's antics by this point. _"__No. Go away.__"_

"**Can't!****"**

The teasing tone made the edge of Naruto's lips twitch upwards. While his methods were a bit unusual, Kurama did tend to at least try to cheer him up when he was down, in his own way. He still wasn't sure why the big oaf started caring, but it was definitely better than his "rawr, I'll devour you and all that you hold dear"-attitude that he so stubbornly persisted with before.

It was then that he noticed something was off. The last cart of the caravan was now in sight, which granted him a small sliver of relief, but its occupants were... unique, and it wasn't just because one of them was Ulfric himself, although he certainly called upon his attention as well. Of all of the fugitives, the rebel leader was the only one who was gagged. Not that strange, if they wanted to keep him from shouting out some order to hiding troops, but anyone could do that, so why wasn't everyone gagged, then? Besides, why did they only tie the soldiers' hands up? Flimsy. Flimsy and downright retarded. Those bounds wouldn't hold a shinobi down for two seconds...

However, it wasn't Ulfric or the flimsy bounds that had really caught his attention. No, it was the single non-Nord of all of the fugitives in the entire caravan. She was a Khajiit woman with a coat as white as snow, her hair in long, thick braids, reaching down to the base of her tail. The cart was too far away for him to see any details, but he could feel hints of an almost regal aura, one that seemed broken and replaced with jaded bitterness. Unlike the Stormcloak soldiers, her hands were actually tied behind her back, and not with ropes, but chains. There were several elves of the faction he'd come to know as the Thalmor circling the cart, but they didn't seem to be guarding Ulfric, but rather the Khajiit.

Why was she deemed to be such a threat, and why was she even tossed among the Stormcloaks? She couldn't be one, obviously, since the Stormcloaks were quite notorious for being Nord supremacists. With the stigma that the so called beast-folk held these days, there was no way that they would even let one into their ranks in the first place. Hell, the Khajiit usually weren't even allowed into the cities.

Something just wasn't right here.

* * *

The grogginess lingered as the comfortable drowsiness seemed to be in no rush letting go of her mind. Frankly, she didn't want to wake up, not really. The foggy blanket of almost-sleep was so much more nice and _simple_ than the harsh and so frustratingly _complicated_ fangs of the waking world. But no, her so-called brothers in binds would not let her, as they'd much rather try and converse. Humans… At least one of them was gagged, one less voice to bug her.

Nords they were, her companions on the cart. Not the friendliest of folk, especially not towards outlanders such as her, so the politeness of the blond one was a surprise. She supposed that race mattered but little when facing the gallows, in the end. The blond Stormcloak was at least somewhat decent company, if a bit too philosophical for her liking. Oh, she could appreciate the occasional bit of poetry, but she found little to be poetical about when heading to the headsman's block.

The Nord in rags was not nearly as calm, no. He was panicky, even. Horse thief. Heh. Tamriel held no mercy for those that would steal a horse, just like it held no place for people like her. The animal thief kept insisting that the two of them shouldn't be there, trussed up on a cart with the Stormcloaks, heading towards the chopping block. Hah! What a joke. 'Shouldn't be'? How cute. The Legion didn't care about any 'should'-s or 'shouldn't'-s, only what was and wasn't. The world was a cold, hard place with no place for any idealistic 'should be'-s.

The gloomy young Khajiit inspected what she could see of her binds. Flimsy, at best. She could pick a lock of this level in half a moment! If she had any picks, that is. She would use her claws, but her tail didn't really have them, and with her hands restricted like this...

A faint sliver of blue light darted across the surface of the chains. Che. Enchanted. To restrain her magic, no doubt, and with four Thalmor Justiciars watching her every move and only minimal cover nearby, things were looking very bleak for the renowned 'Ghost' indeed.

She couldn't help but let out a low growl. All of this, and in the end, that bastard she once called a brother would go free. Of course he would. That magnificent bastard of a traitor always did. She sighed, resigning herself to just observe the walls around them. End of the line, it seemed. End of the Ghost story. But perhaps this was for the best, in the end...

"I thought cats weren't allowed into the cities?" The horse thief's words cut through her thoughts, snapping her attention to the conversationalists.

She snorted at him. "This one is on the way to the chopping block. What would such silly things matter?"

"I'm pretty sure that only applies to the caravans, anyway," the blond Stormcloak added. Ralof, was it?

"I mean that one up there," said the thief, indicating with his head towards one of the towers. "Curious they allowed one into the guard, as a lookout, no less."

"It's a time of change, horse thief," Ralof remarked. "I just hope that it is for the better."

"But a Khajiit guarding a Nord town-"

"That is no Khajiit."

The three Nords, even the gagged one, regarded the white Khajiit with confusion. "If that's not a Khajiit, cat, then what is he?" Ralof couldn't help but ask.

"Khajiit does not know," she admitted. "But no Khajiit looks like that."

No. The person, just a kid she realised, seemed too... vulpine to be one of her people. He was too far away for her to see him properly, but she knew that no cat of Elsweyr had ears that large. They brought the foxes of the desert Anequina to mind. A fox-person? She had a vague memory of some old book mentioning a race like that. Lilmothiit, the seafarers, if she remembered it right. Weren't they supposed to be extinct? If her memory served correct, nobody had heard of them for millennia. Most curious...

Their eyes met for a brief moment, and while he was too far away for her to make out any details, she couldn't help but feel a certain sense of... familiarity, as if she knew him. But the moment was broken as the wagon stopped, and she realised once again that it wouldn't matter, not in the end. Not after this.

For this was the end of the line...

* * *

From his perch high upon the ridge, our young hero had been trying to listen in on the prisoners' conversation, with little success, and all the while his sense of foreboding had grown. To be on the safe side, he'd made a few extra clones to keep a more thorough lookout, a few were even watching the streets from the shadows between the houses.

The Khajiit puzzled Naruto, and it wasn't just the heavy restraints she was under. No, the emotional read she got from her was so much different than the ones he got from the soldiers, or even the cattle thief. While the latter was overcome with fear and confusion and the soldiers emitted a solid aura of defeat, the white cat was bitter, annoyed and filled with regret, and... self-hate? Not that surprising in itself perhaps, but it stood out, and in most cases, one would be bitter at oneself for getting caught. Her bitterness was indiscriminate. He didn't really bother to look too far into it, though. Everyone was different, after all.

When the cart stopped, Captain Hadvar ran up to it, along with some Legate he didn't know and started going through a roll-call. It was disheartening, really. Just listing people like that. For the block, he meant. Checking them off, to die, like they were... This was _people_, not... not some objects they could play around with! It was so... impersonal. Insensitive. Inhuman.

When Lokir – that was the horse thief – couldn't handle the pressure anymore and made a break for it, Naruto couldn't stand watching him be shot down. It was a good thing that Torolf had insisted that Haming went inside earlier. No need to make a child see all of this.

Then, they called for _her_.

"Inorra, the 'Ghost' of Anequima."

"This is the end for you, 'Ghost'!" The commanding voice of the Legate cut through the air like a knife. "I don't exactly like doing the Elves' dirty work for them, but you brought this upon yourself!"

Inorra hissed at the Legate. "'Brought this upon myself'? All that Khajiit did was being born! It is Vasha you're after!"

Naruto froze.

"Your words carry no weight here, cat. Now get to the block!"

The wayward shinobi could just barely restrain himself from shouting out loud in protest as the white Khajiit begrudgingly joined the crowd of Stormcloaks. This was insane! Didn't these people have any proper interrogation techniques? That Khajiit, Inorra, was telling the truth! There had been no lie! An execution he would withstand, but not the execution of an innocent!

Thinking quickly, Naruto made a Kage Bunshin, positioned so that it wouldn't be seen from behind the ridge. He made an approximate guess of distance. Good, she was within his range. Giving his clone the signal to go ahead, it henge'd into the Khajiit and did a Kawarimi with her as noiselessly as it possibly could. He wasn't entirely sure what to do when the clone would inevitably dispel, but he'd figure something out.

There was a low 'thump' as the cat convict lost her balance and fell to the floor in surprise at suddenly being at an entirely spot than she was half a second ago. Acting quickly, the young fox covered her mouth with his hand. "Keep it down," he hissed, mostly as a precaution, since she hadn't made a sound. "I'm trying to save you!"

Inorra narrowed her eyes. She was not swift to trust, by any meaning of the word, but she was at a clear disadvantage here, and this strange young... whatever he was had apparently at least saved her from a more immediate danger with whatever it was he did, but if she was this quick to trust, she'd been dead a long time ago. The boy uncovered her mouth, allowing her to speak.

"And why would you save this one?"

His answer was simple. "You didn't lie."

The fugitive raised an eyebrow. "You would trust a criminal above men of the law?"

"The truth is the truth, no matter who-"

"**Kit! Incoming!****"**

Naruto froze at the warning, shooting back up in position. Kurama barely had time to utter those words before the memory of a dispelling clone had hit him. A great shadow was approaching from the Jerall Mountains, from the sky, no less. The young Lilmothiit couldn't help but feel a moment of Deja-vu, as if he should know what it was.

"**That's **_**Alduin**_**, Kit!****"** the older fox supplied, before grumbling to himself. **"****Just got back and I have to see **_**his**_** ugly snout again? Fucking irresponsible Lizard bastard...****"**

"_What do you mean?__"_

"**Run, Kit. Just run. You can't fight that thing. As we are right now, we don****'****t have a snowflake****'****s chance in Hell!****"**

The young teen grit his teeth. Time to sound the alarm. If they couldn't fight it, then they'd have to evacuate, and fast. He channelled chakra to his voice box to make sure that he would be heard. "INCOMING! DRAGON APPROACHING FROM THE SOUTHEAST!"

All action stopped below. Torolf turned up to give him an incredulous stare. "Have you had too much drink, boy?"

As if to prove him wrong, the black harbinger of destruction let a thundering roar echo across the sky.

Naruto grimaced. "HE'S GETTING CLOSER! WE NEED TO EVACUATE! NOW!"

"Sweet mother Mara..." gasped a guard on a neighbouring tower. "It _is_ a dragon! Everyone, we gotta-"

He couldn't even finish his sentence as Alduin, devourer of worlds, landed upon the very tower he stood upon, crushing the poor guard dead.

The sky itself darkened, storm clouds circling overhead as if they were in the middle of a cyclone. Fire started falling down from the heavens like rain, crushing and burning anything unfortunate enough to get in its way.

All in the span of a few seconds.

Inorra managed to stand up, her hands still bound. The black dragon turned his head to the two youngsters, and for a horrifying moment, their gazes met, and the dragon _smirked _at were unsure how, but somehow, they just glared back at the black harbinger and they could feel... _something _stir within.

Then the moment was over, and Naruto finally found his voice again.

"MOVE!"

* * *

Everything seemed to blur together after that point, leaving only vague impressions behind with only a few moments of agonizing clarity. Flames devouring everything in sight, the screams of panic and agony that seemed to come from everywhere at once, the desperate yells from the soldiers, the frantic orders from the officers and the overwhelming feeling of _hopelessness__…_ It was just as devouring as the flames around them, eating away on their already low morale, leaving only one thought left in Naruto's already quite battered mind.

Why?

Why did this have to happen? Why Helgen? Why now? Why _Helgen?_

_Why did these things always happen to him?!_

He remembered setting Inorra free from her bonds before looking for the people he had begun to think of as family, only to see Matlara being pierced trough the chest by dragon claws. When he found Haming and Torolf, the latter was shielding the former with his own body from lethal dragon fire. Feeling numb, Naruto had managed to grab Haming and get out of there. The keep had an escape route he knew, and for now, getting Haming out of this flaming inferno alive was all that mattered.

Inside, he encountered Inorra again, along with Hadvar and Naruto felt relief, knowing they were still alive. Stormcloaks and Imperials alike were littering the tunnel, both alive and dead and Naruto remembers fighting his way through. Who his opponents were wasn't clear, he just wanted to get away, to get Haming away. To keep his otouto alive. Haming wanted to fight too, and Naruto remembers a feeling of panic. He couldn't let him fight, Haming wasn't yet strong enough! There had been an argument, but he couldn't remember the details. Inorra had kept her head cool and mediated. Haming had folded. He remembers feeling relief and gratitude.

It had been a hunt from that point, he realized. He and Inorra, they had been two predators stalking through the cave, and the hostile humans their prey. It made him queasy just thinking about it. They had struck from above, killing everything in their path just to clear the way to the exit. Sure, they had survived, but killing never came easy to him. Oh, he'd grown used to it, but what really frightened him was how _naturally_ it had come to him at that moment.

In a way, it just served to further hammer down the fact that he _wasn__'__t human anymore._ It was horrifyingly tempting to call himself a monster, but _Kurama_ had more or less beaten the notion out of him. He wasn't a monster, and if he dared to call himself that again then Lilmothiit or not, the fox would pound him senseless.

It didn't change the fact that he was now irrefutably a _predator_, and that was something that the young ninja found very difficult coming to terms with.

* * *

That curiosity killed the cat is a common saying and Inorra, the renowned 'Ghost' of Anequima now found herself firmly held within the grasp of an unusually high concentration of the potentially lethal sensation, despite her many years of living with entirely justified paranoia that should by all means discourage such a sensation.

The subject of this fascination? Why the first Sea strider to be seen in Tamriel for millennia, of course! She had almost felt stupid for not recognizing what he was at first, but when she remembered how few traces the foxes had left behind that notion had been dropped like a hot potato. In fact, the recorded history from that day and age was sparse and eroded by time, to the point that most of her people of this day believed the Lilmothiit to be a mere myth that very few bothered with anymore. Indeed, most peoples didn't even remember they ever existed. They had become a legend, a myth that she herself had favored dearly as a young kitten, but had almost forgotten about in all that had happened since then, so it was no wonder it had taken a while for the realization to hit her.

To think that she would actually meet one. A live, genuine _Scribe!_ The inner child she thought she had killed off years ago seemed to have reappeared and she found herself having a hard time suppressing it. By Alkosh, she had so many questions! Where had they gone all those centuries ago? Why had they disappeared? Were there others alive? Where? How did their culture look like? Why was he in _Skyrim_ of all lands? Why now? Why had he saved her, really?

And just why did she feel as if she should know him?

But she couldn't ask him, not now. She could see the pain and grief in the young fox's eyes clear as day and could tell that all of these questions would have to wait until a later date. The poor boy needed a chance to heal, and such questions might very well tear up other wounds, something that was the last thing he needed right now.

To think she had planned to ditch this group at first opportunity, at first, but now…

No, the Ghost would stay with the young Strider for a while. Inorra knew she _should_ leave, to keep her enemies away from these youngsters if nothing else, but there was just something about the fox that made her want to stay, and it wasn't just her curiosity and childhood dreams that caused it. The blonde teen just had this strange feeling about him that just made her want to follow him, despite all that her experience told her.

Her experience told her to stay away, to not get close, never ever, not to _anyone._ It told her she would get hurt, that _they_ would get hurt. That she couldn't trust anyone. That she should just cast an invisibility-spell on herself and sneak away at first opportunity. That she shouldn't drag anyone else into this. That she should hide in the shadows of the night, away, away, _away._

And yet, for the first time in years, Inorra silenced the voice of her paranoia and decided to listen to her heart, just this once. For the first time in over a decade, the Ghost of Anequima decided that this time, she would cover someone else's six.

For now...

* * *

That night, they set up camp by the White River. Riverwood wasn't far away now, but they were exhausted both physically and emotionally and needed to sleep. Inorra was best off, unsurprisingly since she hadn't lost anyone close in the chaos, and was already asleep. Hadvar was fast asleep as well, though his sleep was fitful, tossing this way and that. Naruto had already woken him up once, but the nightmares persisted. The poor officer had lost all of his men that day and if the young shinobi had had any drug for dreamless sleep, he would have gladly shared a dose.

Not to mention that he would have given little Haming one. The poor child was suffering from a pretty bad case of survivor's guilt and kept seeing the burning body of his father whenever he closed his eyes. As it was, the eleven-year-old was awake, sitting alone on a log, facing the river, staring blankly ahead. It didn't take an expert to tell that the kid was blaming himself for his parents' deaths, illogical as it might seem. Naruto was unsurprised. In that situation, anyone would.

The blond teen was mourning them too, but this time just like when he last time had lost someone close, he found that he was unable to shed any tears. It wasn't that he didn't let himself cry, it was simply that the tears didn't feel like coming. With a sigh, the fox walked over to little Haming, taking a seat right beside his surrogate brother on the log. He didn't speak, settling for gazing at the rushing river. The sound of water had always had a calming effect on him, and the river water rushing towards its distant freedom in the open seas... It was poetic, in a way. Poetically soothing.

"Haming..." he said after a while, never turning his gaze away from the running waters. "Did I ever tell you about the time Konoha was invaded?"

The boy still didn't say anything, but he turned his head towards his big brother, indicating that he had his attention.

Naruto nodded faintly, leaning forward with a faraway look in his eyes. He was no longer gazing at the White River, but into the rivers of time, remembering things he'd honestly rather not. "It was... almost two years ago, now. Oto, a new village, and Suna, our long-time allies teamed up and struck during our most... our most open moment, during the Chûnin Shiken. We were caught pants down."

"I..." The young fox lowered his head. "I was fighting Gaara, their... uh... their ace, a few miles away from the city walls and missed most of it all. By the time I got back to the village, a whole district the size of Whiterun was in ruins. We did chase the invaders off in the end, but... our leader died that day." Turning his head, he gave Haming a sad smile. "My parents died the day I was born. Growing up, that old man was the closest thing to family I had."

Silence fell upon the duo once more like a heavy thicket. A wolf pack could be heard howling in the distance.

After a while, Haming spoke quietly. "How do you stand it?"

Naruto smiled, wrapping an arm around the younger boy's shoulders. "I live." Live the life he'd have wanted me to live. Live the life he couldn't. The words went unspoken, but oh, so very heard. The young Nord bit his lip, shaking slightly. Naruto noticed grasped his shoulder more firmly. "Let it out."

Haming's shaking got worse, but otherwise, he didn't respond.

"Let it _out_", insisted the fox. "You don't need to be strong, little brother. I'm here. It's okay to cry."

As if a switch had been turned on, the little Nord started hugging his brother like a lifeline, sobs racking his small form. All of his fear, his utter despair was laid bare for his brother to see, and Naruto took it all in, whispering soothing words in the little one's ear.

He had no idea how long they sat there, but before he knew it, Haming was asleep, and Naruto could feel sleep burrow its claws into him as well. They fell asleep like that, sitting on a log, lulled to sleep by emotions flowing as freely as the river before them.

Neither could imagine what future held in store for them.

* * *

A few meters away, by the edge of their camp, two glowing, yellow eyes observed the two surrogate brothers. The owner let a melancholic smile escape her before she went back to her tent. Maybe, just maybe, things would be different this time...

* * *

**And thus concludes chapter four, Black Wings in the Cold! For those that don't know, the word Khajiit means 'Sand Strider', the Khaj meaning 'Desert' or 'Sand' and the Iit meaning 'One who walks' or 'Traveller of'. Do remember that, because it's kind of important.**

**This chapter didn't really turn out as well as I'd have liked. It feels... choppy towards the middle. What do you think? Should I rewrite it? Should I let it be? Please let me know.**

**(Edit: Re-wrote the escape from Helgen and made a few major and some rather minor adjustments. Hopefully, it's better now...)**

**I was really happy with how the last scene turned out, though. I really loved writing that.**

**Until next time, take care, peeps!**


	5. Rise from the Ashes

**And believe me, I am still alive. Doing science and stuff... **

**Deeply sorry for the delay guys. Life got in the way. I don't think I've ever felt as bad because of school in my life as I've had these last few months. Every single part of my mind that controlled my writing seemed to be frozen solid because of how much I was lagging behind. I'm not joking, sending a simple e-mail took me five days. _Five. Days. _I'm not even exaggerating.**

**But now, my Summer break is going strong and I've been on a vacation in Wales for ten days that finally let my mind wind down a bit. Which gave me three nights straight of nightmares, unfortunately. Minding the fact that I don't usually have nightmares more than once every few years, I think that speaks for itself of just how bad I've been feeling lately...**

**On the plus side, I'm no longer stressed out of my mind and can finally write again. Finally. **

**And there was much rejoicing.**

**On a different note, I managed to re-write a large part of the last chapter a while ago, and I gotta say, the improvement is significant. It's all been up and fixed for a few months now so you can read it any time if you haven't already. You might also have noticed that I actually fixed a proper cover picture now. Made from scratch by yours truly! Turned out pretty good if I dare say so myself. Might modify it a bit, though... What say you guys? **

* * *

Journey of a Lilmothiit  
Chapter 4

* * *

Rise from the Ashes

There was a noticeable change in the air the next day. The faint smile on Naruto's lips no longer appeared to be as strained as before and Haming seemed to have regained a spark of life, even if he never seemed to voluntarily stray further than a few feet away from his older brother, and while Inorra's eyes had previously seemed dull and lifeless a small spark seemed to have ignited there somewhere. It seemed, somehow, that life was still possible.

Hadvar took a little longer to perk up, but the moment they stepped inside Riverwood and saw the town untouched, it was as if a great weight had lifted from his shoulders. No dragon had attacked _his_ home town. Well, so far, at least. They weren't naïve enough to believe that it would never happen, but at least now they could make sure they'd be prepared if and when it would strike.

The rag-tag quartet stayed with Hadvar's uncle Alvor and his family for the day. After Hadvar had told them what happened, Alvor and his family were quick to offer the small party a place to stay for as long as they wished.

However, Naruto knew that they couldn't afford to stay for long. If one dragon was on the loose, what was there to say that there wasn't more? Even more so since the dragon in question was _Alduin_. The name itself was menacing enough, but Kurama had actually been in a talkative mood for once in a while, and according to him, that pitch-black menace just so happened to be _the king__ of dragonkind_. In addition, it seemed that the dragons were intimately connected to Akatosh (or Alkosh, as Kurama kept calling him) and had therefore souls that existed outside of the bonds of time. This would supposedly mean that they could come back to life, _truly_ come back to life, with the right means.

There was no doubt that if there was anyone who had those means at their disposal, that someone would be Alduin.

In conclusion, dragons were returning full-force, and Naruto felt that the very damn least he could do was to warn people of the coming danger. The young man had intended to head to Whiterun anyway and this simply gave him one more reason to do so.

Despite all this, alerting Whiterun was not quite at the forefront of his mind at this time.

The whole Helgen incident had not only torn up new wounds, but had also dragged up certain issues that he'd honestly been trying to avoid for a rather long time now. Home. He'd just lost one, but what about his other home? What of his _real_ home? What about Konoha? Sure, his training trip wasn't even supposed to be over yet since less than two years had passed so far, but now that he had been forcibly blocked off for an unspecified time, the distance became that much more apparent.

Torolf and his family had given him a new home in Helgen, and it had helped him greatly to cope with his unexpected isolation, but now that that new home had been burned to the ground there wasn't much left to shield him from the pain of being cut off. He missed home, so very, very much. He missed his friends, his old streets, he missed his old sensei. All three of them. He missed his team. His team...

Sasuke...

Well, that damn bastard mucking it all up didn't exactly make it better, did he? Although, he supposed that when it really got down to it, Orochimaru was the one who really mucked it all up. They were _this_ close to get him to open up properly, and then...

Funny. That had been the first time his mind had brought that bastard up in months. Perhaps getting away from it all_ was_ doing him some good, in the end.

With a sigh, the young shinobi stood up and walked outside. He _really _needed to clear his head, this was getting him nowhere.

* * *

Meanwhile, Haming was encountering trouble elsewhere. He had encountered two other children in the small village, Frodnar and Dorthe, who had heard of the Helgen incident and in typical childlike curiosity, had been very eager to hear about it all. Since Dorthe was Alvor's daughter she'd heard about the refugees earlier than most and since Haming was the closest to their age, it was only natural that they would ask him for the full story.

They were only children, little kids who couldn't even comprehend just what the now orphaned child had gone through, so how were they to understand how he felt when they begged him to tell them, begged him to reopen so very fresh, so immensely deep emotional wounds? Haming didn't want to. He didn't want to remember the way his mother had screamed in terror as the beast had turned to her, didn't want to remember how his father smiled so sadly at him when he had shielded him from the dragon's flames, didn't want to remember the look of hopelessness on his brother's face when he couldn't do anything to stop it all. Didn't want to remember.

Didn't want to remember at all.

But who could blame Dorthe and Frodnar for being curious? They were children; curiosity was in their _nature,_ and when word was out about an actual, live _d__ragon,_ what child wouldn't want to hear the story? Better yet, from someone who _had been there!_ To them, it was awesome. Fantastic. Cool. A story. _Unreal._

How could they comprehend the pain? The terror and despair? They were just kids.

And so, they kept asking him. Did it breathe fire? Did it have big teeth? What about its claws? How big was it? Did it fly? _Did it breathe fire?_

It was then that a furry hand grasped his shoulder, but not the one he was used to. Not his brother. It was the cat. Inorra. She gave him a small, sympathetic smile and just told him that his brother was in the study. With a weak but grateful smile he ran off, seeking his brother's soothing presence. He wouldn't disturb, his brother was busy, but right now, he needed familiarity more than anything.

Behind him, Inorra smiled to herself as she begun to tell the kids a rather heavily edited version of the events that occurred the previous day, much to the joy of the little ones. She wasn't usually this friendly with people, but she'd always had a soft spot for kids.

She barely had time to finish her tale before Haming rushed out again, panic shining painfully bright in his eyes.

"He's gone! I- I can't find him!"

* * *

Not all effects from Naruto's turning were even nearly as obvious as his more... cosmetic changes. Some were much more subtle. Perhaps the most prominent of these was that he no longer had a headache. It wasn't something he had been actively aware that he had in the first place, but now that it was gone, he couldn't remember a time he hadn't had it there, pulsing in the background.

As with everything else, there was a good reason for this. Like Kurama had been saying from the very start, Naruto's mind had been hard-wired for the body of a Lilmothiit from the very day he'd first been conceived. In layman's terms, this meant that he'd had the brain of a Lilmothiit while the rest of his body had been that of a human. This had naturally led to some grave motorical issues, but also to his constant headache. Why? Because his cranium was the wrong shape.

Now, normally, this would have been lethal or at the very least gravely crippling, but dumb luck was something that had followed Naruto like a lost puppy throughout his entire life. Apparently, the difference in size and shape was just small enough for Naruto not to be permanently crippled, and the rest was taken care of by the ever-handy Uzumaki resilience. The final result was something of the mental equivalent of living your entire life wearing shoes just a single size too small. Not enough to permanently damage your foot, but enough to noticeably hamper your performance. And when you finally get shoes your _actual_ size, you're going to notice the difference.

Now that his cranium finally fit his brain as it should, Naruto found it much easier to focus, to see connections and to draw conclusions. His memory seemed much more easily accessible, too. He didn't just magically 'know' things that he did not before, but he found that what he _did_ know was much more easily available. In short, thinking was no longer a struggle for our young hero. He didn't really know why this was, only that he didn't have that damn headache anymore, and that was enough for him.

In a situation like his, this was very much appreciated, because until the very day before, his first priority had been to find a way to get home as soon as he could, or at the very least contact his sensei, but now he found his priorities... jumbled.

He'd grown attached to this land, he figured. Getting home was still important, and his loyalty still stood firmly with Konoha, so his duty dictated that he should find a way to at least contact the village first and foremost. However, ever since the Helgen incident, as people already had begun to call it, his sense of justice declared that he couldn't go home yet; he had to do something about the dragons first. But what? What could_ he_ do?

What _should_ he do? He would alert Whiterun regardless, but what afterwards?

He had to contact his home, of course. That had to come first. He was a soldier. A genin. A _private._ He was not to make choices, because it was not his place to do so. He wanted to, he wanted to so _dearly, _but even he had to

follow the code of conduct at times like these...

But this was here. This was _now_. Dragons were attacking. It was tangible. Reachable. He could act here and now. Contacting home was something abstract, and the process was something unknown, while the dragons were right in front of him, within arm's reach.

Yet even so...

He really needed to get a message through. It went miles against protocol to do something so drastic as fighting an invasion against an obviously superior enemy in a faraway land without _at the very damn least_ informing his superiors. A report, a distress call or at the very least a message just to tell them that he was still alive and relatively well, as well as the situation at hand. But how? He'd already tried summoning the toads, but that didn't work, and all of his sealing equipment had been destroyed in the transfer.

Perhaps the Kelle would give him answers? One of them brought him here, so logically, another would bring him back, right?

And yet, what said that he'd end up on his home world when and if he actually got hold of one? Or for that matter, his _time?_ He knew enough about jikû-kan theory to realise that there were way too many factors involved to just open one of those scrolls and expect to return from whence he came...

Naal sossedov mu fent daal... There was more to this than he knew, he realised, and the dragons were clearly involved, but how? What exactly did they have to do with him?

This whole issue was making him dizzy. The whole situation he'd somehow found himself in was simply overwhelming and Naruto had no idea how to even begin to tackle it. As helpful as Kurama had been in matters of getting back on his feet, that damn Youma clammed up tighter than a miser's purse whenever topics came up that actually _mattered_. He still knew nothing about the people he supposedly belonged to, why he was here, _how_ the Kel had even brought him here, about the dragons, their sudden appearance and just _why_ the Kyuubi knew this land so well.

Or for that matter, why the subject tortured the fox so.

These questions just gave birth to even more questions. If he was a Lilmothiit by blood, then what of his family? His parents? Had they known? Had they been Lilmothiit as well? Could they... Perhaps... Maybe, possibly, _somehow_ still be alive? Here? In Tamriel? Just maybe?

Of course, that was just wishful thinking on his part, but the possibility was still there, however small...

Lastly, there was the damned black dragon. Alduin. He had not failed to notice that he had spoken the same tongue as he himself seemed to know by instinct. The same tongue as the one written in runes in that ruin where this whole mess started. It seemed that the dragons and the Lilmothiit were connected somehow, but in what way? Was he supposed to feel guilty for what Alduin had done?

Had his arrival in Tamriel had something to do with the dragon's sudden appearance? He prayed that that wasn't the case, but...

Naruto sighed. He still wasn't getting anywhere. He was lost, for the first time in his own mind...

_You've got a good head on you, when you decide to use it, but you've got a better heart, remember that. They ever disagree, follow your gut. Listen to your head, but always follow your gut. Always._

...His gut, huh?

Heh. Naruto chuckled to himself. Good old ero-sennin. Old toad was always right, even when he wasn't there. When had he stopped listening? With all that had went down these last few days, he supposed his head's voice had gotten too loud. Not as difficult for it to now, he guessed, with its throat cleared out. Well, then he'd just do that, then, like he usually did. Just like he should have been doing all along.

"Eyes on the target, not the horizon," the teen muttered to himself, grinning slightly. Yeah, that sounded good.

He'd go to Whiterun and alert the Jarl first. Then he'd contact Eorlund and through him, the companions so that he could use their information network to look for any and all information regarding the Dragons and jikû-kan distortions. He had enough money to rent a room for him and Haming for at least a few days until they found a better alternative. If the Companions' information network didn't come up with anything he'd give it a month or two before he'd hitch a cart up to Winterhold and contact the college. If that ended up being a dead end, well, he'd just have to figure that one out then. Long-term planning never worked out well for him anyway.

On that matter, didn't Kurama say that the Dragons were closely linked to Akatosh, and therefore very sensitive to fluctuations in the fabric of space-time? Maybe if he could find a friendly dragon, that might-

A piercingly strong stench of lingering smoke and decay snapped him out of his train of thought with the suddenness of a lightning bolt, making him realize in horror just where his feet had led him. He was back. Back to the place he had fled yesterday.

Helgen.

The embers were still burning.

Anguish gripped Naruto's heart as swiftly as a summer hailstorm and he found himself unable to move, his previous ponderings utterly thrown to the wind. It had been out of habit, he realized. Out of pure damn habit he had walked up that paved slope. Just like he had done yesterday, at this very approximate time. But that time it had been towards a prospering village, just buzzing with life. However, as the smouldering rubble filled his vision, it all felt like a distant dream.

The inn where the local bard only days ago had futilely tried teaching him how to play the lute was now crumbling. The roof was reduced to naught but ash and only a single wall was still standing upright.

The shed in which he'd slept nearly every single night these last three months, not out of inhospitality but simply because of lack of space, was nowhere to be seen. A pile of ash and charred wood was all that was left.

His sensei and benefactor's beloved forge was now reduced to a crumbling ring of stone.

The courtyard where he had sparred with the guardsmen was torn up, the cobblestone crushed and scattered all over the village.

The nooks and crannies where he and Haming used to hide when they played hide-and-seek, crushed under burning logs.

For only three months had he lived here, yet those three months had been filled with so many precious memories. Learning their language, getting to know the people, that one travelling mage who taught him a bit of magic, cracking jokes at how different their cultures were, confusing one social gesture for another... Little things. Precious things.

As the visage of a smouldering corpse entered his vision, the young Lilmothiit realised that he couldn't leave it all like this. There was a time for musings and this wasn't it, for right now, there was something he simply had to do...

* * *

Haming wasn't sure what he expected to find when they finally tracked his big brother down, but this certainly wasn't it. When he and Inorra, who had been kind enough to help him, finally caught up to Naruto, the teen fox was crouching in front of what seemed to be a huge, unlit bonfire, hands pressed to the ground. He seemed to be concentrating very hard on something.

It hurt the young Nord to be back. It hurt him so very, very much, and he knew that it hurt his brother too. Why had he gone back? Why would he voluntarily expose himself to this pain?

"A funeral pyre?" came Inorra's purring voice from behind him.

And indeed, when he looked closer, Haming could see human-sized, oblong shapes wrapped in cloth on the top of the stack. A funeral, huh? Haming clenched his fists. His brother was an idiot, doing all of this himself. Didn't he trust him? Didn't Naruto trust him after all they'd been through? It wasn't even his village, for Kyne's sake, so why would the fox shoulder this on his own? No, Haming wouldn't let him.

As the young Nord strode forward with determined steps, Inorra stood back. The white Khajiit knew better than to interfere; this was the boys' issue to deal with. She briefly considered – again – to simply leave them for the wind, but found herself unable to hold the thought for long. Apparently, her heart was already made up, despite her mind's protests.

She watched with a small smile as little Haming ran up to his brother, who had somehow conjured up a large, square slab of rock from the ground, and punched him, before hugging him tight.

Soon, the wood stood alight, flames once again licking at the sky, for the second time in two days. However, this time was different. The flames weren't hungry. The flames didn't destroy. These were guiding flames, delivering the souls of the fallen onwards to the land of the honoured dead. To Sovngarde.

Inorra turned away and walked out of the gates, deciding to leave the brothers alone. She had no place in this moment so she would not even try to intrude upon it.

With a sigh, she pulled out her special stash of thin Moon sugar flakes and a small paper rectangle. She really needed a smoke right now. Most didn't smoke Moon sugar, for numerous reasons, mostly because that variant was a lot harder to come by, but this Khajiit found it worth the extra effort. It made her feel calmer, more focused, closer connected to the moons than the more traditional way of ingesting the substance ever did.

She lit the small cylinder with a minor fire spell and took a deep breath. Indeed, the immunity to the annoying side-effects of the normally crippling drug was likely the single perk of her condition. She ran her fingers through her unnaturally thick mane in slight frustration. That accursed mane.

Yes. That accursed mane of hers, the singular source of her misfortune. If not for it...

Another sigh. Sure, her condition might negate the side-effects of the Sugar, but if not for it, she wouldn't have to smoke in the first place.

She took another, deep puff, letting the mist calm her down. It wouldn't do to keep dwelling on things she couldn't change. But truly, she was weary. Much too tired of this running. She couldn't hide for long either, as her signature mane would just point her out like a bloody lighthouse.

But then, had that not been why she had come to Skyrim? Because she might be able to stay unnoticed in the midst of the civil war?

The chalk-white Mane took a deep breath and turned around, watching the two brothers take farewell to their loved ones. It made her remember the scene she had observed last night, by the White River.

Alive. Yes. Still alive. She was still alive, still surviving, despite the continuous efforts of that damn bag of wasted flesh she once called brother. Still alive, despite the Thalmor nearly succeeding in getting her executed. Still alive. Still surviving.

The Mane that Should Not Be was _still alive._ The Ghost was not yet exorcized. That thought brought her hope, something she hadn't felt in years.

She still couldn't put her finger on it, but somehow, through _some _means, in the minuscule time that had passed since they had first met, that odd fox had sparked up that light within her that she long thought dead. Life. Inorra felt alive again. Somehow, she felt like she could actually live again.

Logic still stated that she should ditch the two brothers for the wind, to keep them away from her personal demons, and that fox seemed to have enough problems as it was, and yet... She couldn't. Some part of her heart had found a beacon of hope in the blond Lilmothiit and the rest of it wanted her to follow that beacon. The why was unclear, but Inorra would find it. Eventually. Somehow. After all, Inorra always found what she was looking for.

She could only hope that the civil war and her Illusion skills was enough to keep him and Haming away from the danger-zone until then.

* * *

To the faint glow of dying embers and the dancing auroras above, the mismatched trio left Helgen, each with a new sense of determination in their hearts.

Inorra had found a source of hope, even if she wasn't quite certain of the why, but it did make her want to start fighting again. She felt a calling here, in Skyrim, in a certain fox in particular, and Thalmor or Elsweyr be damned, she'd follow that call.

Haming swore that he'd grow stronger. Much stronger. He refused to be a burden to his brother anymore.

Naruto had finally found the determination he was renowned for again. He promised, on his honour, on his dream of being Hokage, that as long as he was still breathing, he'd stop Alduin, repercussions be damned. Helgen would not be repeated. Not if he had anything to say about it.

And then there was Kurama. He had finally found a survivor of the one clan that had been closest to him, after all this time, in his jailer ironically enough, and there was just _no_ way he'd let him die any time soon. But then, he'd already made that decision the moment Naruto had touched that Elder Scroll.

Behind them, illuminated only by the dying embers of the grand funeral pyre there stood a small square rock. Deeply etched upon its surface, stood written the names of every single person who had fallen to that black menace that day.

High above them, the auroras seemed to be smiling down upon them. A new day was on the horizon, and our heroes were finally ready to face it with a grin.

* * *

**And so, Helgen got its own memorial stone. I felt it was the kind of thing Naruto would do. Arc's done now, and I already started writing chapter five, so the next time will hopefully be very soon. Likely this week, soon. No internet for ten days means a lot of writing gets done, after all.**


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